Who We Are and Who We Hope To Be
by Jordana Amore
Summary: After Kurt's transfer, Karofsky sets his sights on Rachel as a means of asserting his manliness. As Karofsky attempts to make people see him for the man he isn't through any means necessary, Rachel must face the fact that she may not be as strong as she once thought and learn to accept the help of her friends. Set in season 2 after "Furt" . Warning for abuse and general darkness.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note (please read):** Firstly, this story has been sitting on my hard drive for a while so please note the time/setting. It was started during **season 2 **(shortly after Furt aired) and so it takes place around that time and features Kurt at Dalton. Obviously all that has transpired on the show since then will need to be ignored for this to make sense. Secondly, if you are a Karofsky fan, this might not be the story for you. He is not a nice person here. This story features season 2 Karofsky, so he's a pretty dark individual (but hopefully not a cartoon villain). Thirdly, I started this fic a while ago and abandoned it to write another story, which was sort of born out of this idea of a character being abused. I never published this one because I didn't want all my stories to be big angst-filled messes or be known as that weird girl who tortures her favorite characters in her stories, but whatever, I'm curious to hear what people think about this one so I just decided to put it out there. Plus, I'm a sucker for angst.

**Warning:** This story will feature some hateful language and mentions of abuse. I don't condone the usage of such slurs, they are meant to be a reflection of the character.

* * *

He decides he needs to make his preference clear to people, he doesn't need that little homo Kurt tricking people into thinking he likes dudes. He heard Hummel transferred to some private school for queers, but who knows what vicious lies he's spreading now that he thinks he's safely out of reach. Hudson called him out for not having a girlfriend in front of the team and now his teammates are getting suspicious. He sees it in the way they eye him in the locker room, like he's trying to get a look at their junk.

But he's not like that, he's nothing like that little fairy Kurt, who ran away like some sissy. He's a real man. He only kissed Kurt to scare him away, so that fag would stop trying to get in his pants. Because he knew Kurt wanted him and he figured he'd teach Hummel a lesson. Show him what a real man was like, so he'd know not to go around trying to spread his perversion to straight men, like him.

He hasn't been fixated on the other boy ever since their encounter in the locker room, he hasn't fantasized about kissing his soft lips again or touching his smooth porcelain skin. No. He hasn't done any of that. He's as straight as they come, he's not some fucking queer obsessed with another dude. Another dude who has perfectly manicured hair and wears tighter jeans than any of the girls at McKinley. He's not. He'll prove it.

And what better way to do that than dolling out some equal opportunity harassment. If he turns his sights on a chick then people will see that he's not into dudes and he won't have to worry about people spreading lies about him. He spent way too much time around Hummel, people might think he caught his perverse disease. He needs to man up, shake off these feelings. He's no fag.

Scanning the hallway, his eyes settle on a familiar face and he can't help but smirk. It would be perfect on so many levels. Unlike Kurt, his new but familiar victim won't have a band of freaks gathering around her offering support or protection, especially now that her boyfriend dumped her. This girl is so much of a loser that even the other losers she hangs around with in that gay club of theirs won't bother coming to her defense. With no friends and a permanent spot at the bottom of the school social ladder, Rachel Berry is the perfect choice.

She's turned now, rummaging through her locker in search of something, so he decides to seize the opportunity. He begins his stride and soon he's passing by her, unnecessarily close, intentionally letting his right hand fall to the side so that it brushes against her backside. He quickly turns so that he's walking backwards, eagerly awaiting her reaction.

Rachel spins abruptly on her heels with a squeak of outrage, her startled expression giving way to an angry one when she realizes who has touched her. "Karofsky," she seethes, fixing her large brown eyes on him.

Dave winks and blows her a kiss before turning his back to her and disappearing down the corridor. He didn't feel anything when his fingertips slid across the back of her skirt, but he definitely got some satisfaction out of riling her up.

This was going to be good. Despite her notorious big mouth, he knows Rachel made it a point not to report the numerous slushy facials and verbal insults he's hurled at her over the years out of fear of becoming an even bigger social reject, as if that was possible, so he's confident his newest target won't be running off to Figgins anytime soon.

* * *

The next day he takes the time to threaten the kid who usually sits besides Berry in their shared Math class so that he can occupy the seat. He waits for class to start before walking in so that she won't have the opportunity to get up and change her seat before the bell. He plops down next to her, his proximity eliciting an eye roll from the tiny brunette. He busies himself during class with the tasks of knocking her pencil off her desk repeatedly and poking her in the ribs so that he can ask her some inane question.

"Pst," Dave whispers. She ignores him. "Berry. Berry. Hey Berry."

"What?" Rachel finally snaps at him, a little too loudly.

"Miss Berry, is there a problem?" the teacher asks from the front of the room.

Rachel lifts her head to look at Mrs. Wheeler. "No. I was just...Dave wouldn't...uh, sorry," she stammers.

The older woman turns her attention back to the lesson on the whiteboard and Rachel is barely able to hide her embarrassment at getting in trouble. She feels another jab to her ribs and notes Karofsky's smug look as he revels in her annoyance.

"Can I borrow a pencil?" he asks innocently.

She doesn't respond.

And then another jab. "What page are we on?" He gestures to the text book open on her desk.

Rachel looks pointedly at his bare desk and shakes her head in annoyance, once again fixing her eyes on the board in front of her. She was not going to play his game.

"Mrs. Wheeler?"

Rachel turns her head to the side when she hears Dave's voice calling out to their teacher.

"Yes, Mr. Karofsky?" Mrs. Wheeler answers.

Dave glances at Rachel once again and smiles slyly. "I seem to have forgotten my text book and I'm having a terrible time keeping up."

"Well, why don't you look on with one of your classmates," the teacher suggests.

"Brilliant idea!" Dave calls out with exaggerated excitement. "Rachel, would you be so kind as to share your text book with me?" he asks loudly enough so that Mrs. Wheeler can hear. He flashes a wide grin and waits for Rachel to respond.

"There's plenty of other people here you can leech off of, Karofsky," Rachel says coldly.

"Miss Berry," the teacher admonishes. "Your classmate is asking for help. Would you like it if someone turned you away when you needed assistance?"

"No, Mrs. Wheeler," Rachel says, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment and her eyes focused on her desk in quiet defeat. She couldn't stand to be reprimanded in public.

The sound of Dave pushing his desk towards hers brings her head up once again.

"Gee, thanks Rachel!" he exclaims enthusiastically.

He's only inches away from her now and she instinctively leans in the opposite direction as he leers at her with a disturbing gleam in his eye.

Mrs. Wheeler continues on with the lesson and Rachel does her best to avoid Karofsky. Eventually his hand finds her knee under her desk and she abruptly moves her leg away from his grasp, bumping the leg of her desk in the process. The whole class turns to look at the cause of the noisy disturbance and Rachel's cheeks redden once again in embarrassment. She mutters an apology and glares at Karofsky.

Once she's settled in again, Karofsky repeats the action, this time applying more pressure to her knee. Rachel's about to pull away when she remembers the curious stares of her classmates from a minute ago. Instead, she decides to shift away from Karofsky slowly to avoid creating a commotion, but he clamps down on the knee tighter, holding her leg in place.

When Rachel finally lifts her eyes to meet his, he's staring at her intensely and she can't quite place the emotion on his face. It's not the smug amusement she usually spots in his features when he's throwing slushies in her face, it's darker, more sinister. She attempts to pry his hand from her knee by placing a hand over his, but with a quick flip of his wrist he's now grasping her hand instead of her knee. He begins to pull her hand towards his crotch as he smirks at her, but Rachel uses all her strength to yank her arm upwards. The back of her hand smacks against the underside of his desk, resulting in a loud banging sound that carries through the classroom.

Immediately, Rachel pushes her seat back and flies from her desk. She's standing over a smug Dave Karofsky, ready to express her outrage in the form of a powerful monologue when Mrs. Wheeler speaks up from the front of the classroom.

"What in the world is going on back there?" the teacher asks.

Rachel launches into her explanation. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Wheeler, but David-"

But she's quickly cut off. "I dropped my pencil," Dave interrupts. "Rachel was just trying to grab it for me and knocked into the desk. Clumsy little thing, isn't she?"

Rachel narrows her eyes at him as he lifts the corner of his mouth into a smirk.

"Ok then, sit down Miss Berry. We've had enough distractions for today," Mrs. Wheeler orders, visibly annoyed with her students' antics.

Rachel huffs audibly as she takes her seat, deciding to let Karofsky win at whatever little game he was currently playing. When the bell rings to signal the end of the class, Rachel is out of her seat in a flash and gone before Karofsky has the chance to inflict anymore humiliation on her.

Rachel practically marches down the hall to her next class, fuming over the fact that Dave Karofsky got the best of her. She isn't sure what Karofsky's problem is or why he has moved on from throwing slushies in her face to harassing her in class. Maybe he had found out that she was the one who organized the Glee boys' charge against him on Kurt's behalf and was making a preemptive strike to keep her from taking action to help his next victim. Well, he had another thing coming if he thought she'd be deterred from speaking up against his blatant bullying if he ever treated anyone else the way he had treated Kurt. Rachel Berry did not scare easily.

* * *

He runs into her again just after the last bell of the school day has rung, as students are rushing to their lockers to pack up their belongings to head home for the day.

"What's up, Berry?" he says as he swings an arm over her shoulder.

Rachel shrugs his arm from her shoulder and sighs in disgust. "What do you want, Karofsky?" She had noticed him loitered outside her classroom door 20 minutes before the period had come to an end and it occurs to her now that he has been waiting for her this whole time. If she wasn't so disgusted by him, she'd be impressed with his dedication. He really did apply himself when it came to tormenting other students.

"Just wanted to say hi. Is that a crime or something?" he asks.

He starts to walk with her towards her locker and she quickens the speed of her steps in hopes of escaping him. She's pretty fast for someone so small, but Dave keeps her pace easily.

"No, but it is a crime to threaten to life of a fellow student like you did to Kurt," she says, not bothering to look at him.

He charges forward and steps in front of her, effectively bringing her to a stop. "Did Hummel tell you I threatened him? What else did he tell you about me?" Dave asks worriedly. He knew Kurt would run his mouth. "You can't believe anything he says. He's a liar. He just wants to bang me and he's pissed I'm not a homo like him."

Rachel inhales sharply, offended on her friend's behalf, and points an accusatory finger at Karofsky. "Kurt would never want to be with you! I can't imagine anyone would want to be with you! You're a vile disgusting pig and your language, much like your personal hygiene, is reprehensible! I feel bad for you, David, because while Kurt was brave enough to be himself in a school full of homophobes like you, you're too scared to be anything other than what your peers expect you to be. You're just another hateful ignorant bully who will have peaked by graduation!"

"Shut your mouth!" Karofsky growls as he snatches her hand out of the air, crushing the finger that had been pointed at him in his palm. He's gripped with such a sudden rush of panic that he can barely see straight. Did she know? Is that what she was getting at? Was she going to tell everyone? She couldn't have known. He yanks her close so that no one will hear him, ignoring her feeble squeak of protest. "You don't know anything about me, you little bitch! You hear me? You know nothing! So shut your fucking mouth or I'll shut it for you! You understand?"

Rachel blinks up at him dumbly, too shocked to respond. There's plenty of students milling around the hallway, but nobody bats an eyelash at the way Karofsky is squeezing her hand so tightly in his own that her knees buckle slightly from the pain. And nobody seems to notice the way he's towering over her, threatening her in harsh angry whispers.

He uses his grasp on her hand to shake a response out of her. "Do you understand?" he repeats. "You gonna keep that big mouth of yours shut?"

"Y-yes!" Rachel manages to spit out. "Now let go of my hand, you're hurting me!"

The flames in his eyes seem to simmer and he releases her hand with a grunt, tossing it back towards her.

Rachel staggers back slightly and watches him storm away. She flexes her hand a few times to make sure no bones are broken and then glances around timidly.

Once the shock wears off, she's outraged. Outraged for Kurt. Outraged that no one intervened on her behalf. Outraged that Dave Karofsky thought he could threaten her in a crowded hallway and get away with it. She may have been scared for a moment there, but she wasn't going to live her life in fear of a bully.

* * *

After some thought Dave decides Berry didn't actually know anything, that she was just trying to get a rise out of him and he was a fool for allowing her to. But he's actually kind of glad she pissed him off. She looked terrified after he delivered his little warning in the hallway and it was always good to take precautions and keep people in check. He didn't need her running her mouth around school and the more afraid she was the more compliant she'd be.

The next day he spots her strutting confidently down the hallway, head held high despite the fact that she is indeed Rachel Berry, McKinley High pond scum. She catches him glaring at her but doesn't falter in her determined step. He frowns at the thought that maybe he had lost his touch. He couldn't even keep a girl like Rachel Berry in line. He thought for sure she'd be trembling at the sight of him by now and willing to go along with whatever plan he came up with, and he had come up with a good one.

Then it occurs to him that someone like Rachel Berry might just have a stronger tolerance for small time harassment seeing as every jock and cheerleader made her one of their prime targets. He'll have to step things up. Find a way to break her.

Finally she's mere feet away from him now, walking alone because who in their right mind would walk the halls with her? He steps out in front of her, his shadow looming over her menacingly.

"Get out of my way, Karofsky," Rachel demands. Her voice is calm but there's an edge to it. The events of the previous day are clear in her mind but she refuses to cower to him.

"Ask nicely," Dave responds, an uncharacteristic smile dancing on his lips. A boy he's with slaps his back with a laugh.

"Don't you have anything better to do than harass me?" she asks, annoyance clear in her voice.

He braces a hand against the locker. "Actually, I don't. Now that Hudson is off embracing his inner homo with his new gay brother, you're fair game. No more quarterback boyfriend by your side. No more big strong man around to protect you," he says mockingly. "Not that Hudson was much of a man anyway."

Rachel straightens up and narrows her eyes at the football player. "I'll assure you that Finn _and_ Kurt are twice the man you'll ever be! And I don't need a man to protect me from a hateful ignoramus like you! Now move!"

A startled cry escapes Rachel's lips when Dave shoves her against the lockers, hard.

"Don't compare me to that homo Kurt," he says through gritted teeth. He steps into her space, pressing her against the locker with his chest. "I'm nothing like him!" He grips her upper arms, his fingers pressing firmly into her flesh.

"Dude!" Rachel hears an unfamiliar voice calling out from behind Karofsky and snaps out of her daze long enough to look at the nameless jock. "Ease up, man. She's just a chick," the boy points out as if Dave might not have been aware.

Begrudgingly, Karofsky takes a step back and Rachel exhales, realizing she had been holding her breath since the shove. Dave gives her a threatening look before allowing his friend to lead him away.

Rachel watches the two boys walk to meet some of their friends a few classroom doors down in confusion. Karofsky had always been a jerk but he was never this violent with her before, in fact he had never actually laid a hand on her before yesterday. All of his previous assaults had come in the form of colorized icy drinks. Now suddenly he thought it was ok to fondle her underneath a desk in class and push her around in the hallways? Something was definitely up. Perhaps he was coming unhinged in the wake of Kurt's transfer, surely he must have taken the school's lack of disciplinary response as an invitation to extend his reign of terror. She thinks maybe she should tell someone, just in case.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Thank you for reading, reviewing, and putting this story on alert. Please let me know what you think of this chapter.

* * *

Later that day Rachel walks into the choir room for Glee practice but doesn't take her seat right away. She had decided to tell Mr. Schue since he was the one who had tried to help Kurt and he knew exactly what Karofsky was capable of. The rest of the club files in and she's painfully aware of their eyes on her as she bounces nervously on the balls of her feet besides the piano. She considers abandoning her mission as she hears a few of teammates snicker behind her back, but her determination holds. She doesn't want to make a big deal out of nothing or be accused of looking for attention, but something about Karofsky's new interest in her seems _off_, it was different from his usual MO and she didn't know how to handle it.

Finally Mr. Schue shuffles into the room with an armful of sheet music.

"Rachel," Mr. Schue says noticing her by the piano. "What's up?"

"Can I talk to you about something?" she asks, her demeanor uncharacteristically shy.

Mr. Schue doesn't even try to stifle the deflated sigh that escapes his lips. "We don't really have time for this, Rachel. We have a lot to do today. I'm being as fair as I could when it comes to distributing the solos, you're just going to have to accept the fact that you're not the only one in this club."

"Yeah Rachel, why don't you just give it up?" Quinn calls from her seat with a satisfied smirk.

Rachel shakes her head and opens her mouth to respond but she can only utter unintelligible sounds in place of actual words. Her eyes narrow in confusion for a moment before the reality of what's happening sets in. Mr. Schue doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't want to hear _her_. She didn't even get the chance to explain or ask for help. With a frown of disappointment she finds a seat in the back row, away from Finn and Santana and Quinn, and stews in her hopelessness.

"What's wrong?" Puck asks when he sees the sadness in her eyes. He's been keeping his promise about being nicer to Jews and he always had a soft spot for chicks in distress.

Rachel shakes her head as if to indicate nothing but the lump in her throat keeps her from speaking. She doesn't even bother to sing along when they practice their group song for Regionals. Mr. Schue reprimands her for sulking over the solo again when he catches on to her lackluster effort and a few of her teammates laugh. She doesn't bother to defend herself.

* * *

At lunch Dave notices Berry isn't sitting with the rest of the Glee losers, in fact she isn't sitting with anyone. Must be fallout from the breakup with Hudson, he thinks. He's happy to see someone else as lonely and miserable as he feels. He signals to his buddies that he'll be with them in a minute and approaches the girl. It's the middle of the lunch period and the cafeteria is crowded with hungry students. All he had to do was put face time in with her, show the school that he could get a girl, even if that girl was Rachel Berry.

She's poking at her salad with her fork, much too deep in her longing for Finn to realize he's taken a seat next to her.

"Hey Berry," he greets. His grin so wide his face hurts.

Rachel's head snaps up to look at him and she sighs. She wasn't in the mood for his antics. "What do you think you're doing, Karofsky?" she demands.

She speaks to him with such revulsion that he can't calm the anger building up inside him. She was a nobody and she dared to speak to him in that tone?

"Watch it," he warns angrily before his features soften once again.

Rachel notes the way his demeanor changes so suddenly, how easily he gets angry and how seamlessly he slips back to cooly antagonizing her. She shifts uneasily in her hard plastic cafeteria chair.

"I saw you sitting here all alone and thought I'd do you the favor of keeping you company during your meal." His lips lift into a cocky smile as his hand comes to rest on top of hers. This is the perfect time to lay the plan on her. He has her exactly where he wants her, alone and afraid. "Listen, I have a proposal for you."

Immediately Rachel tugs her hand out from under his, not bothering to hide her disgust. "Don't touch me. And I don't want your company," she says with a roll of her eyes and a look of contempt. She starts gathering her belongings, but before she rises from her seat she makes it a point to look him directly in the eyes. Her dads always said she should face her fears head on and she hates that Dave Karofsky has become one of those fears. He was just a stupid school bully, she wasn't going to let him intimidate her any longer.

"Look, I don't know what you and those moronic friends of yours are up to," Rachel starts, "and I'm sure you thought just because Finn and I broke up that my defenses would be down and I would be susceptible to whatever juvenile trap you and your brainless buddies set up to humiliate me, but I can assure you that no matter how vulnerable I may be, I would never, even for a moment, entertain the idea of being with you, David. And after the way you treated Kurt, my opinion of you has only plummeted, something I didn't even think possible."

She stands up with a satisfied flip of her hair, but Dave latches onto her wrist and rather easily manages to yank her back into her seat. "You like girls, Berry? Is that why Hudson dumped your sorry ass?" he whispers darkly. "Guess those faggot fathers of yours rubbed off on you, huh? The gay must be contagious." His voice is a low growl and Rachel can't help but gasp as his grip tightens around her wrist.

Her head is so hot with anger that she can't find her voice, something that she never had a problem with before. Just as she's about to finally open her mouth she hears a laugh and then a new voice.

"Looks like someone's working her way through the football team."

Rachel looks over her shoulder to see a smug Santana glaring down at her, with three cheerios in tow.

"First Finn, then Puck and now Karofsky. Really Dwarf? Do you think fooling around with popular guys will change the fact that you're a grade A loser? Because it won't," Santana says.

"I would never!" Rachel shrieks, finally managing to pull her wrist away from Karofsky.

Karofsky gives Santana a smirk before turning back to Rachel. "Come on, babe," he says, leaning over to brush the hair from Rachel's face. "Don't be shy." He takes advantage of Rachel's shock long enough to touch his thumb to her mouth and trace her parted lips. "Why don't you tell everyone how you just blew me in the boys' bathroom? Hm? That pretty little mouth of yours is good for more than just yapping and singing show tunes."

Rachel can't believe what she's hearing. She stands and pushes at Karofsky's chest. "Ugh, that's disgusting! He's lying!" She's vaguely aware of the unusually high pitch of her voice, but if ever a moment called for dramatics, this was it.

Santana eyes her suspiciously for a moment before breaking into a spiteful laugh. "Figures little Miss Virgin would be orally inclined," she cackles. The other Cheerios snicker and remind Rachel that this bit of false information was certain to make its way around school in record time. "I can't believe after your little speech about needing to stop Karofsky from picking on Kurt, you're sleeping with the enemy. Desperate much, Berry?"

"I am not sleeping with him!" Rachel huffs, stomping her foot like a petulant child.

"Oh that's right, virgin girl, you're just sucking him off between classes." With that Santana and her minions are gone, their ponytails sashaying behind them as they strut out of the cafeteria.

Rachel's heart begins to beat faster and faster as she struggles to control her rapidly increasing breath. She can't ever recall being this angry. Her cheeks are flushed and her hands balled tightly into fists. If she wasn't certain Karofsky would hit her back, she'd slap the boy. Before she can clear her head enough to form coherent thoughts Karofsky is up and laughing casually. She looks at him, dumbfounded and hurt, as if he'd care.

"Why did you do that?" she asks, her voice timid and quiet.

His laughing ceases and his lips spread into a predatory smile. He presses his mouth to her ear and whispers, "because I can." Then he kisses her softly on the head and disappears.

* * *

He's pretty pleased with the turn of events. He didn't even have to start the rumor himself or further intimidate Rachel into agreeing to go along with it, everything just sort of fell into place.

People have been coming up to him all afternoon and asking him if the rumors about him and Rachel Berry are true. He wishes he could have linked himself to a more popular girl, but popular girls have the pull at McKinley to counter his story. Even if Berry denied the rumors, no one would really care what she had to say and would just choose to believe the more scandalous version of the story anyway. He had picked her for reason.

He uses his fifth period study hall period to hit the weight room for a quick workout. As he loads the weight bench with more weight a couple of guys from the football team walk it.

"Hey man," a boy named Aaron says. "Heard about you and that Berry chick."

"Scrapping the bottom of the barrel, huh?" the other boy Scott adds with a chuckle.

"Hey don't knock it till you try it," Dave says as he lays down on the bench and begins lifting the bar over his head. "If Berry wants to suck me dry between classes then who am I to deny her? Besides what kind of fag turns down perfectly good head?" He knows Scott is just giving him a hard time because Scott's kind of a dick, but he didn't need anyone discrediting his reputation.

Aaron comes to stand behind the bench so that he can spot Dave as he lifts. "Did she really blow you in the bathroom this morning?" Aaron asks, leaning over the bar with vested interest. "Cindy said Santana Lopez walked in on her going down on you."

Karofsky smirks at how easily his image rehab was going. He didn't even have to spread the rumor himself. He simply suggested it to Santana and she ran with it, and now it seemed the rumor had a life of it's own and was being warped and exaggerated, which of course was perfectly fine with him.

"I don't kiss and tell, but I never pass up the opportunity to brag about good head and that chick has a mouth like a hoover vacuum," Dave says, lifting the bar back into it's place and sitting up with a wicked grin.

The boys laugh and Aaron slaps his shoulder.

"Man, I didn't think little Miss Priss had it in her. She seems like such a goody-goody," Scott says.

"Yeah but she has two fags as fathers," Aaron points out. "You know they've got to be into some pretty depraved shit. They've probably been taking her to orgies for years. Those dudes are total perverts, it's not surprising their daughter turned into such a slutty little freak."

Dave swallows hard. He'd never be able to live as his true self in this town. "Yeah, probably," he laughs uncomfortably. "She's definitely had a lot of practice. Chick is a total pro."

"Yeah?" Scott asks, his interest peaked.

"Yeah," Dave says. "And she can't get enough of me. She's been blowing up my phone all day, just begging me to give it to her again. I might have to pencil her in for a second go-around before the end of the day."

"Wasn't she dating Hudson for a while?" Aaron asks as he grabs a couple of 20 pound free weights.

Dave shrugs. "He probably couldn't keep it up for her. That girl craves dick constantly and Hudson's too much of a pussy to give it to her. She needs a real man to satisfy her. It's no wonder she came begging for this," he says as he grabs his crotch for emphasis.

Despite never being turned on by the pornographic videos he had watched of petite girls with huge breasts performing the act he's bragging about, the time he spent staring at his laptop trying to convince himself he was attracted to those women was coming in hand. If he was going to partake in locker room talk about some chick he was pretending to screw around with, he needed to be convincing.

"Damn, man," Scott says with a regretful shake of his head. "If I'd known Berry was so wild I would have made a play for that a long time ago. She may be a social reject, but I wouldn't mind tapping that tight little ass of hers."

* * *

The next day the torment reaches a new level for Rachel, but it's not Karofsky doing the teasing, it's his friends and the cheerleaders. Santana had sent the news of Rachel and Karofsky's alleged bathroom tryst around the school at lightening speed. As she enters each classroom and turns every corner she's painfully aware of the eyes on her and the snickers that pass from one classmate to the next. There are no more insults about her lacking fashion sense or grating personality, jabs she had grown accustomed to, now it's blow job jokes and sexually explicit requests from strange boys.

One boy had been so persistent in his attempt to receive the sexual favor he had been assured she'd be happy to provide that not even a hardy glare and scathing reproach from a conveniently located Puck could stop him from following her into the girl's bathroom later to collect.

"You're a difficult girl to track down, Berry," the boy says as he breezes through the bathroom's swinging door.

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Incase you didn't notice, this is the _girls'_ bathroom, Scott."

Scott had been hassling her for 2 days now and she's really not in the mood for more of his crude comments. Her reflection meets her eyes in the mirror over the sink and she stares intently at the tired girl looking back at her. She had been having similar encounters all day, although no one had been as relentless as Scott Daley.

"So now that we're alone, I thought maybe you could give me a sample of those amazing skills of yours," Scott says.

"Leave me alone, Scott." Disgusted with her own reflection Rachel lowers her eyes for a moment but snaps them open seconds later when she hears a zipper being unzipped.

"What the hell are you doing?" she screeches, slamming her eyes closed in horror when she notices that Scott is now fully exposed.

"Come on," Scott prompts, holding himself proudly. "I only have a few minutes before my next class. Let's do this."

"Oh my God! Put that away! I'm not... I don't... I don't even know you!" Rachel cries in outrage. She can't even look in Scott's direction, _it_ was just there, out for all to see.

Scott chuckles. "Like that matters to you? Karofsky told me what a little cock slut you are. Said you have a mouth like a hoover vacuum and that you just love to suck him dry."

Rachel's eyes widen in revulsion and her voice cracks with panic. "That-that's disgusting! He's a liar! I-I never touched him!"

Scott is moving closer to her now, his hand still wrapped firmly around his penis. "Look, you don't have to act all coy with me. I know what you are, so let's just give each other what we want and carry on with our lives, okay?"

Rachel's lips curl in disgust and she recoils from the boy's approaching form. "I don't want _that_."

"Yeah, right," Scott mocks with a chuckle. "Karofsky told me how much you want it. How you _beg_ for it. Dave's my boy, but I know girls like you can never get enough dick, so you do this for me and I won't tell Karofsky that you've been stepping out on him."

"What? I'm not dating Karofsky!" Rachel refutes hotly. "I never-"

"So you have been blowing other dudes? Figures a whore like you couldn't be limited to one guy. Well, one more won't hurt, will it, babe? Karofsky never has to know," Scott says with a lecherous smirk. He's reached her now and he lays his free hand on her shoulder in an attempt to guide her down towards his crotch.

"Don't touch me!" Rachel screams and pushes at his chest. She's about to step forward to leave when she's forced back against the sink.

"You like it rough, is that it?" Scott questions as he steps into her space and pins her against the sink with his body. He presses himself against her so that she can feel his exposed penis rubbing against her stomach. "Come on, you little slut, you know you want to," he bites out as his hands wrap tightly around her biceps and his hips cant forward.

"No, I don't! Stop it!" Rachel yells as she continues to push against him. When he doesn't budge she does her best to shrink away from him, bending her body back over the sink in a fruitless attempt to keep him from grinding into her. She's crying now but she doesn't care. "Get off of me! Stop it!"

But Scott doesn't stop, and he doesn't get off of her, instead he wraps an arm around her torso to keep her still as he continues to grind himself into her. "Mm, I like it when you squirm. You're making me _so_ hard right now."

Rachel's mouth opens to voice further protest when the sound of the bathroom door swinging open causes Scott to jump back. Rachel falls to her knees in a heap at his feet as his arm slips from her waist.

From the volume of giggling Rachel can tell it's more than one girl, but her eyes are shut tight, afraid of what she might see if she opens them.

"Ladies," Rachel hears Scott say to the newcomers in a light charming tone. "We were just finishing up here." She can distinctly make out the sound of clothes rustling and a zipper be zipped up. She cracks one eye open experimentally and when she sees that Scott is no longer exposed and that they're no longer alone, she opens both eyes fully and finally takes note of what's going on. She doesn't know the two girls who entered the bathroom well, but one of them is wearing a Cheerio uniform, which means she's probably been filled in on the gossip about her and Karofsky from Santana and will likely report back to her.

"Well, I should be getting on my way. Thanks, Berry. We'll have to do this again some time," Scott says with a wink before disappearing.

Scott is gone but the girls remain, giggling as they reapply their make up at the sink farthest from her. Rachel scrambles to her feet, gathers her books and bolts from the bathroom with the sound of the nameless girls laughing at her expense ringing in her ears.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Thanks for all the support, here's the next chapter. Let me know what you think. **

* * *

Rachel decides to head to the choir room. It's safe and familiar and most importantly empty at this time of the day. She moves quickly, her heart thumping in her chest every time she glances back to check if Scott is following her. As the choir room comes into sight, she scans the hallway one last time to guarantee Scott hasn't followed her to her safe haven. Once she's satisfied the coast is clear she turns and smacks into something hard and unyielding.

"Whoa. Where's the fire, babe?"

Rachel looks up to see Puck grinning down at her, guitar case in hand. In her haste to reach safety she had run directly into his chest as he left the choir room.

His eyes darken and his grin falls when he spots the tears in her eyes. "Are you crying? What happened?"

"Noah!" She's so relieved to see him she doesn't even stop to think about what she's doing as she hugs him.

"What's going on? Is this about Finn again? Because I told him I'd back off and I'm trying to be a better bro," Puck says.

A year earlier he wouldn't have taken so kindly to a crying Rachel Berry barreling into him in the hallway and latching onto him like a child starved for attention. Hell, a year earlier he probably would have been the reason she was crying, but things have changed and he's grown. Rachel is actually sort of his friend now, so he doesn't hesitate to return the hug, unconcerned with the looks he's getting from passing students.

Rachel is sobbing into Puck's black henley shirt, basking in the comfort of his embrace when she starts her shaky explanation. "He.. I was in the...and he," she breaks off before realizing what Puck had actually said a second ago. "Finn?" she asks, confused and quiet. What does Finn have to do with anything? Is that all people thought she did? Cry about Finn? "No," she sniffles, reluctantly removing herself from his arms. "No. It's not Finn."

"So then what is it?" Puck asks, strangely disappointed at the loss of contact. He'd never admit it because he wasn't a total wuss, but he kind of liked holding her. It felt just as badass to protect a tiny chick like Rachel as it did to pound some loser in the parking lot.

Rachel shakes her head and wipes at her eyes. "Never mind. It was nothing. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." She glances around, checking to make sure Scott isn't lurking in the shadows somewhere. "Thank you for indulging me. I'll be going now."

Puck's really fucking confused. Rachel was practically trembling in his arms a minute ago and now she's saying nothing happened. His shirt has wet marks from where she buried her tear-stained face into it and he knows something had to have happened. Rachel was overly dramatic, but not _crying hysterically in the hallways for no reason_ overly dramatic. "Rach, wait. What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing, Noah. I have to go," she says before disappearing into the choir room. He hears the lock turn from the other end of the door and he knows he won't be getting an explanation out of her any time soon.

Puck is still trying to figure out what the hell just happened when a sophomore from the football team comes up to him. He recognizes the kid as Charlie Sawyer, a wide receiver who just moved up from the JV team.

"Is she really as good as they say?"

"What?" Puck replies, confused by the boy's question.

"I knew you'd be all over that. Is that why you joined that girly-ass Glee club? I gotta hand it to you, Puckerman, I just assumed you'd gone soft, but if Dave and Scott are telling the truth about her then I totally see why you do it. Good head is hard to find."

"What the hell are you talking about, Sawyer?" Puck demands. The kid looks so damn excited to be talking to him but Puck has no clue what he's going on about.

"So does she take care of all the guys in the Glee club or just you? Is that why Chang and Evans joined too?" Sawyer asks eagerly. "Karofsky says she has quite the appetite. And I just ran into Scott and he said she went to town on his cock in the bathroom a minute ago."

Puck narrows his gaze in confusion. "Who are you talking about?"

"Rachel Berry," Sawyer says plainly. "Dude, give it up. I know you've been holding out on us. Wanted to keep her all to yourself, huh? Well, I guess now that Dave and Scott are getting it, you're gonna have to get used to sharing your little suck buddy. Not that she'd mind from what I hear. You think I could borrow her sometime this week?"

Puck's hands tangle in Sawyer's shirt, hauling him off the floor and slamming him into a nearby row of lockers. "What the fuck did you just say?" Puck seeths.

"Relax, man. It's not like you're dating the little slut," Sawyer says, nervously twitching against the locker like he expects Puck to hit him.

Puck tightens his hold, shaking the boy for emphasis. "Watch your fucking mouth, Sawyer."

"It's not my mouth you should be worried about if you're messing around with a whore like Rachel Berry," the boy quips.

Puck slams him back against the locker once again. "I said watch it! Rachel's not that kind of girl. Where the hell did you hear this bullshit?"

Sawyer begins to recount the rumors he's heard about Rachel over the last few days, including the brief tale he just heard from Scott when he ran into him outside the girl's second floor bathroom a couple of minutes ago.

Apparently Puck's been out of the loop because this is the first he's hearing about any of it. As the little twerp paints detailed pictures of Rachel performing oral sex on various jocks, Puck starts to feel a little sick. He can't imagine Rachel doing that. She was such a prude with him and if he couldn't get her to loosen up, those morons definitely wouldn't be able to. And random meaningless hook-ups wasn't Rachel's style, it was his. But she had been acting kind of strange since the Finn break-up. Maybe she was using these guys to get back at Finn the way she had tried to use him. But Dave Karofsky and Scott Daley? Those were two of the biggest assholes in the entire school. Rachel had more self-esteem than that, right?

Puck's not sure what to think, but this Sawyer kid seems pretty convinced that Rachel must have gone down on him numerous times and he knows for sure that's not true, even if he wishes it was. He just isn't sure about the other stuff. It sounds pretty unbelievable and not at all like the Rachel he knows, but how much did he really know about Rachel to begin with? He only started to tolerate her recently. He decides it doesn't matter how much of it is true, he doesn't need to hear about it.

"Shut the fuck up," Puck says, interrupting Sawyer. "And don't fucking talk about Rachel from now on, you hear?"

"What do you like her or something?" Sawyer asks with a disbelieving laugh. Puck still has him pinned to the locker, one hand pressed against the boy's chest to hold him still.

"I already told you, asshole. Don't fucking talk about her, you got it? Keep her name out of your mouth." Puck shakes him by his collar a bit to punctuate the threat before backing off.

Sawyer dusts himself off, embarrassed and angry at being manhandled in the hallway like some loser. "Why don't you tell your little girlfriend to keep my boys' dicks out of her mouth," he mutters, thinking Puck is out of earshot.

But Puck hears the other boy's comment and flies at him, throwing a fist at his face and grappling with him till they're both rolling around on the floor. Sawyer throws his share of punches, catching Puck in the face once or twice but Puck easily gains the upper hand and pins Sawyer to the linoleum, slamming his fist into his face a couple of times. "You gonna shut the fuck up now?" Puck asks, fist poised to deliver another punch to Sawyer's jawbone.

"Whatever, man," Sawyer grunts begrudgingly.

With one last threatening glare, Puck relents and gets to his feet. There's a small crowd of students who had gathered to watch the altercation, but thankfully no faculty members are present. Relief hits him when he realizes how lucky he is not have been caught fighting in school considering he's still on probation for trying to steal that ATM. Sometimes he wonders why he does the shit he does, most of it is pretty fucking stupid but he just can't help himself. His mom says he lacks impulse control and maybe that's true because punching Sawyer in the face had been a total impulse. The kid just pissed him off so badly with all that shit he was talking about Rachel. A punk like Charlie Sawyer had no right to talk about her like that. Still, he's going to need to find out what the hell is going on with Rachel if he's going to be getting into wrestling matches in the halls over it.

* * *

Rachel had been called a lot of things in her life but never a slut or whore before. Her tormentors deliver their insults with such conviction that despite knowing the new slurs are completely unfounded she starts to believe them. Scott and the girls from the bathroom must work fast because it only takes a period for the news to travel about Rachel Berry's newest bathroom buddy. The halls are abuzz with excited gossip as the students of McKinley debate whether Rachel is handing out sexual favors in hopes of gaining popularity or has simply always been a closeted slut.

It's a strange sensation to walk into a classroom and hear the collective hush of voices as you approach a group of students you _know_ have just been discussing your newly invented sexual promiscuity, but Rachel does her best to shut the looks and whispers out. She's not sure what she could do to combat the rumors or stop Dave and Scott from harassing her. Mr. Schue hadn't wanted to hear about Karofsky when she approached him for assistance and Noah had assumed the only problem she could possibly have was Finn, so she settles for hoping it'll all eventually die down. If she keeps her head down and ignores it, they'll probably stop, she tells herself.

By the end of the day she's exhausted and on the verge of tears but the thought of Glee keeps her spirits up. She just needs something to distract her from Karofsky and Scott and all the rumors swirling around about her.

Rachel reaches the front of the choir room just as Mercedes and Tina do and she stops to greet them with her best fake smile. Before she can turn to pass through the doorway she's assaulted by a familiar ice cold sensation. Wiping the slushy from her eyes she sees three guys in letterman jackets cackling with laughter.

"Drink it down, Berry," one says with a stupid grin.

"Yeah, we heard you like to swallow," another adds loudly, chuckling wildly at his own comment.

The third proceeds to mimic the sexual act she's been accused of performing by bringing his hand up to his mouth and laughing heavily.

Rachel can't stop the shiver that escapes her body as she stares blankly at the sticky blue puddle of ice and syrup on the floor and tries not to cry. There's a handful of students in the hallway and they all either laugh along or ignore the incident. Her cheeks flush with embarrassment and her eyes burn with restrained tears. She doesn't know how much more of this she could take.

"What the hell was that about?" Mercedes asks. Slushies were a common occurrence for Rachel, but never before had they come with sexually charged insults and obscene gestures, and never had Mercedes seen her teammate look so shaken up by the McKinley High tradition.

Tina takes a tentative step forward and combs some of the ice out Rachel's hair with her fingers. "Are you ok, Rachel? Those guys are morons."

It takes Mercedes and Tina repeating her name several more times before Rachel snaps out of her daze and addresses them. "I need to get cleaned up," she states throwing her shoulders back in a blatant display of false bravado, but her teary eyes and quivering lip betray her. "Can you please inform Mr. Schue that I'll be a few minutes late?"

Mercedes glances at Tina before focusing on Rachel. "You sure you ok, girl?"

Rachel nods tightly. "Perfectly fine. Thank you."

Before the other girls can speak again, Rachel turns on her heals and walks away from the confused faces of her Glee teammates.

She's afraid to go into the bathroom for fear Scott or some other guy might follow her inside and demand a demonstration of her alleged oral talents, so instead she leaves. She hates to miss Glee, but she's cold and wet and she no longer feels safe in her own school. Mr. Schue won't mind, she thinks, he probably won't even notice.

* * *

"Where's Rachel?"

It's about 25 minutes into rehearsal when Mr. Schue poses the question to the club. Puck lifts his head curiously. He had noticed Rachel was missing earlier but he didn't want to be the one who brought it up. Tina and Mercedes exchange worried glances.

"She got slushied on her way in," Mercedes says. "Some idiots on the football team caught her just outside the door."

"She said she was just going to get washed up and then come to practice, but that was almost half an hour ago," Tina adds.

When nobody responds to the news Mercedes speaks up again. "She seemed really upset by it. Maybe she just decided to go home."

"God, what a drama queen," Santana says with an exaggerated eye roll. "You'd think Berry would be used to taking something sticky and wet to the face." She smirks at the innuendo, receiving an appreciative laugh from Quinn.

"Santana! That's enough," Mr. Schue scolds, a little confused by the girl's comment.

Everyone looks to Santana for an explanation, but she just shrugs and turns her attention back to Brittany. Screw them for having no sense of humor.

Puck laughs to himself a little when he hears a very concerned and confused Finn ask Sam what Santana meant. Sam just shoots him a "dude, seriously?" and doesn't answer the question.

"Okay, that's it for today, guys," Mr. Schue says to the group. They've been working on choreography for over an hour straight and most of the kids are eager to call it quits. "Good work. I'll see you all Thursday."

Puck scoops his bag up and sprints to catch Santana at the door. "Hey Santana, hold up."

Santana doesn't look pleased to be stopped. She has plans with Brittany and doesn't need to waste anymore time at school. "What do you want, Puck?" she asks. Brittany lingers just outside the choir room, waiting for Santana in the hallway.

"What's all this shit I've been hearing about Rachel?" Puck asks.

Santana laughs. "Like you don't know, Puck. I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed. I honestly thought you had more juice around here, but I guess the situation's gotten pretty dire if you're going to Berry to get off. And sharing a girl with the likes of Karofsky and Scott Daley?" She pauses to scrunch her face in disgust. "Gross. I guess the mighty Puckasaurus has finally fallen from grace."

"Why does everyone think I've been hooking up with Rachel? We made out because she wanted to get back at Finn, but that's it!" Puck insists.

"Whatever," Santana says disinterestedly. "At least you have the decency to be ashamed of her. You might want to find a new sure thing because it sounds like Berry's calender is filling up."

"Is it really true?" Puck asks, leaning in and lowering his voice. "Did Rachel really hook up with Karofsky and Daley in school?"

Santana rolls her eyes. "Of course it's true. You know how desperate Berry is for attention, she'd do anything to get on top."

"I guess," Puck mutters, still not convinced. It just doesn't make sense. Rachel is a good girl, the type of girl his mother was always nagging him to date, the type of girl who normally wouldn't give him the time of day. Besides, she _hates_ Karofsky. She's the one who suggested the guys use violence to get him to back off Kurt.

"Well, I'm bored now," Santana says. "Besides all this talk about Berry's extra-curricular activities is grossing me out. I'm leaving."

* * *

The next morning Rachel enters school to find Karofsky leaning against her locker. She contemplates avoiding it but her history paper is in there and it's due first period. She won't let Karofsky tarnish her G.P.A. like he's tarnished her reputation.

She approaches the jock, her eyes pleading with him to just let her be. "I need to get my things, Dave," she says, the edge to her voice gone.

Dave rolls his head lazily from shoulder to shoulder before stepping aside and making a welcoming gesture towards Rachel's locker.

Rachel gathers her belongings as quickly as possible, feeling his heated gaze on her the entire time. Just as she slams the metal door shut Dave steps in front of her so that she turns directly into his chest.

"What do you say, Berry?" His voice comes out in a gruff whisper and she looks up at him expectantly. "You can show a little gratitude," he clarifies while running a hand through her freshly curled hair. Rachel tries to turn away from him, but Dave brings his other hand up to cup her face, holding her chin in his hand firmly.

His eyes quickly scan the hall. There's plenty of people paying attention to them and he can't help but be pleased with himself. The attack on her reputation was much more effective in breaking her down than anything he had done up until that point.

"Thanks," Rachel mutters unsure of why she's thanking someone she hates for granting her access to her own locker.

Karofsky untangles his hand from her hair and traces the side of her face with his knuckles. "Actually, I was thinking of something...a little more intimate," he says suggestively. The back of his hand now travels lower, making contact with the side of her breast.

At first Dave didn't mind that a couple of other guys had jumped on the Berry bandwagon. Scott's claim that Berry had sucked his cock in the bathroom only bolstered his own made-up story, but by the end of school yesterday everyone was talking about Scott and Berry. The focus needs to return to him if he wants to protect his own reputation. Marking Berry as his own will not only prove that he likes girls, but will also make him the alpha male amongst the other guys rumored to be getting blow jobs from Berry. The ante had been upped and he's determined to take advantage of the situation.

Rachel tenses as his touch reaches her breast. She's tired of being manhandled. She wants to shout for him to take his hands off of her, scream for all the school to hear, but she knows being in public doesn't necessarily mean she's safe anymore.

"Don't touch me," she says, but it comes out as more of plea than a command, and the way she's squirming against the lockers at his mercy doesn't quite convey the ferocity she had hoped for.

Dave looks around and sees faces staring at them. Clenching his teeth to quell his rising anger at the sudden embarrassment, he leans in to whisper in the offending girl's ear. "I'm going to tell everyone you did no matter what, so you might as well." He grabs her head with both hands and holds her still as he places a bruising kiss on her mouth, every bit aware of his audience. "Don't be stupid, Berry." His words are spoken against her mouth, not giving her an opportunity to protest.

Dave takes a step to leave but then turns back to the girl, who is staring wide-eyed at him. "If you can't keep your mouth shut, maybe I'll need to visit my old buddy Kurt at Gay Academy." He gives her a knowing wink as he walks away, satisfied his threat against the boy got through to her. This was almost too easy.

Rachel looks around and notices people starring, some laughing, some simply shaking their heads in disbelief.

Karofsky is not at all out of earshot from the frozen girl when he stops to answer the questions of his friends, who can't seem to understand why he'd kiss a social reject like Rachel Berry in public. He just shrugs and loudly informs his buddies that _"the little bitch gives good head." _

Rachel doesn't have the energy to muster up her indignation at the falsehood so she simply tucks her head into her chest and walks to class defeated.

* * *

Math class presents Dave with another chance to make some headway with Rachel. He waits for her just outside the classroom door, a little surprised to see she doesn't arrive first. He spots her approaching from the west corridor, her eyes alternating between staring at the title and glancing furtively around her.

She sees him standing guard at the door and swallows hard. She's not in the mood to deal with him, she's not even sure how to deal with him. Hopefully he'll just say something crude and obnoxious and let her slip into class unmolested.

With a nervous glance up at the looming figure who has become the bane of her existence, Rachel attempts to walk into Math class.

"Not so fast," Karofsky sing-songs, gripping her around the waist from behind with both hands. He turns her around so she's facing him and backs her against the wall just outside Mrs. Wheeler's class.

Rachel feels a lump rise in her throat. "We have class, David," she says quietly. His thumb presses harder into her hipbone, causing her to jump slightly.

Dave does a quick sweep of the hallway. The bell hasn't rung yet so there's still plenty of people around. He pulls Rachel closer, her body slamming against his. Dave takes advantage their position and slips his leg between hers, pushing them apart. He brings his thigh up a bit and presses it into her, earning a horrified gasp from the girl. Dave smiles at the sound which has brought the pair even more attention from passers-by. He's very much aware of how things look, he had planned it all carefully. He's got a girl pressed up against a wall, writhing around and gasping, their bodies locked together obscenely. _He looks like the fucking man._

Before Rachel can form a proper protest he's leaning down, burying his head into her neck so that only she can hear him. "You remember our little agreement, right?" he whispers. When she doesn't answer right away he presses his thigh against her center again. Rachel whimpers and attempts to squirm away but his grasp on her hips won't allow her to escape. "You're going to keep your mouth shut. Right?" he bites out.

"Yes!" Rachel cries as his fingers dig deeper into her hipbone and his thigh juts up for a third time. Dave releases her with a satisfied smirk and enters class.

Rachel takes a few moments to collect herself before slinking into the class she shared with her tormentor. She sits on the opposite end of the room and doesn't hear a word Mrs. Wheeler says all class. The rumors and slander were one thing, but how did Karofsky get away with doing _that_ in public? She starts to wonder if maybe she's exaggerating things in her head, nobody else seems to think anything of his behavior. But she can still feel his fingers digging into her hip and his leg pressing into her body and she can't quite stop her hands from shaking in her lap.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **_Kurt and Blaine make an appearance in this chapter and since the story is AU from Furt on and I can do what I want, I'm making Kurt, Blaine and Rachel better friends than they probably were at that point in the series._

_Thanks again for reading and reviewing. I've gotten some concerns from reviewers about this story being too upsetting or difficult to read, and I apologize if it triggered anything painful for any of you. I have some of the next few chapters planned out, but I'd love to know how you guys feel about the darker tones of the story because things were going to stay on this track for at least a little longer, but if it's too much for some readers I'd like to know so I could take that into consideration and maybe make some changes to my initial story plan. Thanks! _

* * *

Rachel is careful about walking around school now. She doesn't loiter in the hallways and she no longer enters empty bathrooms. She carries as many books as her petite arms can hold at once so she doesn't have to make too many trips to her locker throughout the day and avoids known Karofsky hangouts, like the gym and football field. But despite these adjustments to her daily routine, Karofsky still manages to catch her leaving Glee one afternoon.

She had been the last one out of the choir room because Mr. Schue had asked her to help collect the sheet music after rehearsal. There once was a time when she actually liked being picked to help with the Glee club chores because it meant one-on-one time with her choir director and a chance to bounce some ideas off of him, but lately Rachel hasn't felt much like talking to Mr. Schue and she hasn't had any new ideas in a while. Still, she gamely tackles her task and helps her teacher sort the sheet music they had been working with that day.

Rachel's too focused on stacking the papers into neat little piles to notice Mr. Schue staring at her.

"Everything alright, Rachel?" Mr. Schue asks, eyeing her curiously. Almost five minutes had passed without her trying to convince him to give her a solo at Regionals or make changes to the choreography.

"Hm?" Rachel returns absently. She tucks the last stack of sheet music into a crisp blue folder and hands it to her teacher with a small smile.

"You seem a little quiet," Mr. Schue says taking the folder with a nod of thanks.

Rachel shrugs and tosses her bag over her shoulder. "Just tired, I suppose. Well, all done. I should be going now. See you tomorrow."

"Right," Mr. Schue starts hesitantly. He thinks maybe he should prod a little, find out what's wrong with his normally vociferous student, but it's getting late and he's itching to get home and relax so he pushes the concern from his mind. "See you tomorrow, Rachel."

* * *

Rachel scans the hallway quickly before clutching the strap of her messenger bag tightly and making a dash for the building's exit. The school's main doors are just beyond the gym and Rachel quickens her pace as she passes. With only about 20 feet to freedom, she hears a whistle from behind her and freezes.

"Hey Berry. Where you running off to?" a voice calls out. It's not Karofsky, but it's distinctly male and Rachel knows it has to be one of the goons from the football team who hangs around with him. There's the sound of shuffling feet and sneakers squeaking against the linoleum floor before a heavy door slams shut.

"She's probably got some guy waiting out in the parking lot," another voice interjects.

"I thought today was my day," a third voice Rachel recognizes as Scott Daley's joins in. "You double-booking, Berry? Someone's been a busy little whore, huh?"

Rachel barely flinches at the insult, she's grown accustomed to hearing such slurs thrown her way over the past few days. Her back is still to the group but she knows there's a few of them present. As the voices behind her quickly descend into unintelligible chatter and noisy laughter, Rachel glances longingly at the school's double doors. She could run for it, she doubts they'd chase her. They'd probably just call her names and laugh at her as she fled like a coward. That wouldn't be so bad, would it?

She's still debating her options when someone walks up and throws a heavy arm around her shoulders. Rachel recognizes Karofsky's scent without having to look up and tenses immediately.

"Waiting for me, Berry?" Karofsky asks loudly. "I don't blame you." His arm slips from her shoulders and slides down her back till he's flipping up the back of her skirt and leaning back to leer. The other boys who are standing behind them howl in approval as Rachel frantically tries to push Karofsky's hand away from her backside and smooth down her skirt. "Nice pink panties. Those for me?" he asks suggestively.

Rachel spins around so her back is no longer to the other boys and tries to move out of reach, but Karofsky grabs her by the wrist and pulls her into him, holding her firmly against him. She writhes and wiggles within his grasp, desperately trying to break free.

"See, told you she likes it rough," Scott Daley calls out from the group.

"Relax, babe. I'm gonna give it to you to a second," Karofsky says. He shoots her a glare and tightens his grip on her wrist, the threat clear in his eyes. His features quickly shift from menacing to mirthful as he turns his attention back to his friends. "She gets a little antsy if she doesn't get her fill, so I better go fill her up," he calls out with a wicked grin.

A couple of the guys laugh and Rachel watches them walk off through wide frightened eyes as Karofsky drags her, kicking and struggling, into the storage closet just off of the gym.

Once inside the tiny space, Karofsky pushes Rachel away from him with a grunt of disgust and she falls back against a wall of shelves filled with disregarded gym equipment. An old deflated basketball drops heavily to the floor and Rachel jumps at the sound.

"Shut up," Karofsky growls before she can even say anything. "Have you told anybody about this?"

Rachel shakes her head. She hasn't said anything in minutes and it's so unlike her, but she doesn't know what to say. Asking him to stop hasn't helped and demanding he do so only made things worse for her.

"Good," Karofsky says cooly. "Because if you do," he trails off as he advances on her. His body forces her further back against the wall, the shelves jutting into the flesh of her back painfully. Karofsky's hands shoot up to grab her firmly by both arms and she trembles a bit as his hands close tightly around her biceps. "I'll not only kill _you,_ but I'll track down that little fag Kurt and make sure he joins you in hell." His eyes are dark and angry as he squeezes her arms even tighter, shaking her body violently and eliciting a small involuntary squeak of pain from the terrified girl. "But as long as you keep that big mouth of your closed, nobody gets hurt. Got it?"

He releases her suddenly and Rachel crosses her arms instinctively to rub at the sore spots where Karofsky's finger had been. "Later Berry," he says with a smirk before slipping out of the storage closet.

Once alone, Rachel sinks to the floor with a loud shuddering sob. She's too afraid to venture back out into the hallways just yet, so she sits with her knees hugged tightly to her chest and her head buried securely into her knees and cries. When she's convinced enough time has passed to allow Karofsky and his friends to leave campus, Rachel stands with a sniffle. She does her best to appear collected, dabbing at her eyes and straightening out her clothing, before cautiously stepping out into the hallway.

* * *

Rachel endures the crude comments and unwelcome touches from Karofsky for another two weeks before she feels herself reaching the end of her rope. Her back hurts from the numerous times she's unexpectedly met the cold hard metal of a locker and her wrists are bruised a deep purple from the way he grips her tightly when he's putting on a show for his friends at her expense. She can barely make her way through the halls without him pulling her into an unwanted kiss or helping himself to the expanse of her body.

The thing that baffles Rachel the most about Karofsky's behavior is that he makes no attempt to cover up his harassment, instead it seems to her that he goes out of his way to find an audience. And he's never shy when it comes to discussing their imaginary sexual relationship in public. When he manages to corner her in private there are no forced kisses or unwanted caresses, just threats and physical intimidation. Rachel doesn't mind the threats against herself so much, she's starting to think death or a physical beating might be better than what Karofsky is currently doing to her anyway, but when he threatens to go after Kurt if she talks, any thoughts she had been entertaining about turning him in are expunged from her mind.

Rachel can't fathom how Kurt put up with Karofsky for as long as he did, but despite her pain and humiliation she'd never put him at risk again by telling someone what Karofsky is doing to her. Considering the abuse Karofsky has heaped on her these past few weeks, she doesn't doubt that he'd act on his threat against her friend. Besides, there's always the very real possibility that no one will believe her and she'd leave herself and Kurt open to Karofsky's wrath when her complaint is ignored and Karofsky is left unpunished.

She's meeting Kurt and Blaine at the Lima Bean after school and she's grateful for the break from the hell that has become her life at McKinely. She knows the other kids in glee club have heard the rumors and sense something is off with her, but with the exception of a very awkward exchange with Noah, they don't press her for information. She doesn't know if they believe the things Karofsky and the other jocks are saying about her, but they don't defend her and they don't ask her about it. No one rallies the club together to hatch a plan to save her like she did for Kurt. She doesn't expect them to.

"You guys must be working hard, you look exhausted," Kurt tells her when he and Blaine arrive at the Lima Bean. He wraps her up in a tight hug and doesn't miss the way she winces when his arms squeeze firmly around her back. Thinking perhaps he was just a little too enthused to see her, he watches Blaine greet her in a similar manner. Once again Kurt senses a slight flinch from Rachel when the other boy envelops her in a friendly embrace, but decides it's probably nothing.

Rachel and Blaine had gotten close over the last couple of months. Kurt often relied on Rachel's presence as a buffer when he wanted to hang out with Blaine outside of school and Rachel readily obliged. Having a third person around made asking Blaine to hang out a little less intimidating and Rachel was a great wing-woman. Kurt noticed the subtle ways she'd talk him up to Blaine, nothing too obvious but just enough to get Blaine to look at him and smile as he learned about another one of Kurt's traits or accomplishments from Rachel.

Kurt had decided to block out Rachel and Blaine's drunken kiss and subsequent date because neither has brought it up since and he doesn't really like to think about his best friend and crush making out. He could tell both Blaine and Rachel had learned a little more about each other during their date and seemed to develop a friendship of their own as a result. This pleased Kurt because he thinks it's important to include Blaine in his already existing social circle if they are going to date, and if he was reading the other boy's signals correctly, they would be dating soon enough.

They hadn't all hung out much over the past couple of weeks because Rachel kept insisting she was too busy. As much as he missed having her around, Kurt doesn't blame Rachel for wanting to focus on school and Regionals. The New Directions would need all the practice they could get if they were going to beat the Warblers. He's grateful Rachel agreed to come for coffee today, even if it did take a lot of nagging on his part.

"We know we'll have to be at our best if we want to beat you," Rachel offers with a forced smile.

They place their coffee orders and then take up residence at a small table in the corner.

Rachel wants to come right out and ask Kurt how he did it, how he survived being Karofsky's punching bag for so long, but she's afraid of the consequences if he catches on. She listens intermediately as the two boys relate Kurt's latest blunder at Dalton. Apparently he was having some difficulty conforming, much to the amusement of his fellow Warblers.

"You should have seen Headmaster Crowley's face!" Blaine exclaims. "I don't think anyone's ever bedazzled a Dalton blazer before."

"They were red sequins and they added flair!" Kurt defends.

"You don't add flair to a uniform," Blaine argues with an amused smile. "They're meant to look simple and identical. Right, Rachel?" He gives her a moment to respond but she doesn't seem to be paying attention, instead she's staring somewhat unfocused at her coffee cup on the table. A few more seconds tick by without her acknowledging his question. "Rachel?" He exchanges a confused look with Kurt.

"Rachel? Rach? Hey. Hellooo? You in there?" Kurt calls as he stretches an arm across the table to clasp a gentle hand over hers in hopes of drawing her attention back to the conversation.

Rachel lets out a startled gasp before tugging her hand back sharply and knocking over her steaming hot cup of coffee in the process.

"Whoa, coffee spill," Kurt announces with dramatic flair, instantly pulling napkins from the holder to sop up the mess.

"Oh my God, Kurt, your scarf!" Rachel cries when she spots the ruined garment on the table, the unfortunate victim of her spilled drink. "I'm so sorry!"

Kurt eyes her suspiciously. She looks like she's about to cry, surely she can't be that upset over damaging his new scarf. "Don't worry about it, sweetie. It isn't even designer."

"No!" she cries with a whine. "I ruined it. I'm such an idiot. I ruin everything!"

"Rachel, relax. It was an accident," Blaine begins before taking note of her left hand. "Did you get burned?"

Rachel looks down. She had been so upset over Kurt's scarf that she hadn't even noticed the thin layer of skin peeling off the back of her hand. Suddenly the stinging pain registers and she hisses. "Oh, I guess I did."

Blaine stands and kneels beside her. "Here, let me look at it," he offers reaching for her hand.

"That's really not necessary," Rachel argues.

"Blaine's trained in first aid," Kurt says proudly.

"I worked last summer as a lifeguard," the other boy says with a bashful smile. "It's part of the training. Now come on let me see." He kneels beside her and attempts to take her hand in his again.

Rachel stands abruptly. "No, it's fine. I'm sure it's nothing."

Undeterred by her reluctance, Blaine grasps the forearm of her injured hand gently and examines the burn. "That looks like a first degree burn. You need to run it under cold water. Now."

"There's a bathroom in the back," Kurt says. "Come on, Princess. Let's get you fixed up."

Rachel tries to speak up, tries to tell the overly concerned boys that she can do it herself, but before she has a chance they're dragging her over to the single occupancy bathroom in the back of the cafe.

"So what was that out there?" Kurt asks curiously as Blaine holds a stubborn Rachel's hand under the cold stream of water.

"Rachel, can you hold still?" Blaine requests as she squirms in his hold.

She gives the boy tending to her an annoyed glance before looking over her shoulder towards Kurt. "What was what?"

Kurt smiles approvingly at his reflection in the mirror over her head before returning to his interrogation. "The zoning out? The clumsiness? The overwhelming grief over a 12 dollar scarf?" Kurt asks. "Not very Rachel Berry like."

She looks down guiltily. "Just a little pre-occupied, I suppose." She tries to sound nonchalant but fails miserably. "You know, with Regionals coming up and all."

The look on Kurt's face betrays his skepticism, but before he can call her out on the lie Blaine interrupts.

"What happened to your wrist?" Blaine asks.

In her haste to shoot down Kurt's suspicion of her behavior at the table, Rachel had inadvertently turned her hand palm up, revealing the bruises that Karofsky's recent manhandling had left on her wrist.

Rachel yanks her hand out of Blaine's relaxed hold, cradling it closely to her chest. "Nothing," she snaps, her mind scrambling for an excuse. "I tripped, and uh, banged my wrist against the railing on my porch. It's nothing really. It doesn't even hurt."

Blaine frowns at her hasty explanation before shutting the running faucet. "Those look like finger marks."

She notices his eyes taking inventory of her other wrist and pulls down on her sleeves to make sure he doesn't see anything else.

"What? Let me see," Kurt steps towards his former teammate but she shrinks back. "Rachel, what's going on?"

She tries to put some distance between herself and the two boys but the tiny space makes it difficult. "Nothing! I told you, I banged it against a wall."

"I thought you said it was your porch railing?" Blaine questions.

"What?" Rachel's eyes widen at the mix up. "It was. I mean the railing is against a wall," she sputters out unconvincingly.

"You're a terrible liar," Kurt responds with a raise of his eyebrows. "What are you hiding?"

Her bottom lip begins to tremble as she fights the urge to cry. She wants to tell him, but she can't, for his own good. "Kurt, please," she warns desperately, "It's nothing. Really."

"Did someone do that to you?" Blaine asks seriously. He knew those marks, he had seen them on his aunt's arms before his uncle put her in the hospital with a fractured skull.

Rachel shakes her head furiously. "No. No, of course not. I have to go. I'm sorry, okay? But I really need to get home. I'll see you guys around. Okay? Bye." Without waiting for a response she pulls the door open and flees.

Kurt makes an attempt to go after her, but Blaine's hand on his forearm stops him. "Let her go. She doesn't need to be ambushed right now."

* * *

Once again seated at the table they had previously occupied, Blaine and Kurt begin to discuss what had just transpired.

"Well, that was certainly weird. Even for her," Kurt muses as he stirs his drink.

Blaine takes a long sip of coffee before speaking. "I think someone's hurting her."

"Maybe," Kurt begins contemplatively. "That story was definitely BS, but who would hurt Rachel? And why wouldn't she tell me? She's not exactly the secret keeping type."

"How well do you know her parents?" Blaine asks, the implication clear in his voice.

Kurt shakes his head. "It's not her fathers. Those men treat Rachel like she's God's gift to the world."

Blaine thinks for a moment. "Is she dating anyone?"

"No, I don't think so. Last I heard she was still pinning over Finn," Kurt answers with an eye roll. He never did fully understand what went wrong between his step-brother and Rachel.

"You sure?" Blaine prods.

Kurt considers Blaine's question. "Well, if she is dating someone she obviously doesn't want us to know, so no, I'm not sure, but I know someone who might be." He pulls his iPhone from his sweater pocket and starts to scroll through the contacts. "Mercedes knows everything that happens at Mckinley," he elaborates. "If Rachel's seeing someone there, she'll know the dirt."

"So?" Blaine asks hopefully after Kurt ends his phone conversation with Mercedes. From Kurt's look of bewilderment, Blaine can't help but think that the phone call wasn't all as informative as they had hoped.

"She said she doesn't think Rachel's dating anyone, but there have been some rumors going around about her," Kurt says thoughtfully.

"What kind of rumors?" Blaine asks.

Kurt scrunches his face up in disgust. "That Rachel has engaged in sexual relations with Dave Karofsky."

"Karofsky?" Blaine repeats incredulously. "The guy who kissed you?" Kurt nods. "That doesn't make any sense, why would Rachel do that?"

"She wouldn't," Kurt replies confidently. "That girl was too uptight to let Finn get under her shirt, there's no way she'd be fooling around with that sweaty buffoon. Rachel can't stand him."

"So then why the rumors?" Blaine wonders out loud.

"Mercedes says Karofsky has been doing a lot of bragging these last couple of weeks, telling anyone who will listen about their alleged sexual congress," Kurt says.

"So he's using Rachel as a beard?" Blaine concludes.

Kurt nods. "Precisely."

"Why would Rachel go along with that? Why not try to combat the rumors?" Blaine asks, his confusion evident on his face.

"Fear," Kurt answers flatly. "I know what Karofsky's capable of, I don't blame Rachel for being scared."

"We have to do something, Kurt," Blaine says, knitting his brows together in concern.

"I agree, but what?" Kurt asks. "The school wouldn't do anything to protect me, what makes you think they'd protect Rachel?"

"She has bruises covering her wrists! There's physical evidence of his abuse, they can't ignore that!" Blain exclaims urgently. It was abhorrent that McKinley had failed to protect Kurt, but they can't ignore a second student's abuse at the hands of the same bully, or at least he hopes they can't. This was exactly why he left the public school school system.

"First we have to convince Rachel to open up about Karofsky. Nothing can be done if she's denying there's something wrong," Kurt says.

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Blaine asks. Rachel had clamped up pretty quickly when he asked about the bruises on her wrist, obviously she wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

"Courage," Kurt answers with a smile.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: So sorry this chapter took so long to finish. I've been insanely busy and couldn't find the time to write. I wanted to get this up as soon as possible and I may have overlooked some small mistakes in my hasty attempt at editing, so please excuse those. **

**Thanks again for following and favoriting this story, and of course the reviews are always greatly appreciated. Please let me know what you think of this one. ****T****he next chapter shouldn't take nearly as long to post. **

* * *

She barely sleeps that night, the fear that Kurt and Blaine may be onto her secret pounding in her head ever since she fled the Lima Bean hours earlier. Kurt calls her six times but she lets every call go to voice mail. Blaine even texts her something about being there if she ever needs to talk, but she doesn't answer that either. She knows it isn't very polite to ignore her friends' calls and texts, but what could she really say to them at this point?

She had slipped up at the coffee house and now Kurt and Blaine are suspicious and asking questions. And of course the explanation she had come up with was completely pathetic, just like her. She needs to prepare better lies so she'll have them on hand for the future, just in case, but in the meantime she'll just have to commit to the asinine story she told Kurt and Blaine. It's a good thing she's such a skilled actress, a lesser performer would probably struggle with such a flimsy cover story.

The next morning gets off to a typical start. Her dad drops her in front of McKinley and drives off with a cheerful smile and a wish for a great day, completely unaware of the fear and dread rooted deep in his daughter's stomach. Rachel watches his car disappear before turning towards the school's entrance and swallowing her hesitation. Every morning since Karofsky first singled her out has been struggle, and every morning she's had to give herself a little pep talk to get herself through those doors. Today's talk includes promises that it will be over soon, that he'll grow tired of her and move on any day now, she just has to stick it out for a little while longer. With a deep breath and a big fake smile, Rachel throws her shoulders back and walks into William McKinley High School to face another day at the mercy of Dave Karofsky.

He's lingering in front of her first period class and Rachel isn't at all surprised to see him. She's made several adjustments to her daily routine in hopes of avoiding him during her free time and by her locker, but he responded to her intentional scarceness by learning her class schedule and waiting for her outside of classrooms and in corridors. It's no secret that attendance and good grades are important to Rachel Berry, so standing in the way of her education is a sure way to guarantee some face time with her and Karofsky quickly picked up on this and made adjustments of his own.

Her stomach knots with nausea as she nears and she's not sure if it's the sight of his smug face or the combination of no breakfast and no sleep, but she's thankful he doesn't kiss her on the mouth when she approaches. Public shows of kissing have become pretty standard for them over the past couple of weeks, but she's honestly not sure she'd be able to refrain from vomiting all over the hallway title if Karofsky had stuck his tongue down her throat this particular morning.

Rachel decides Karofsky must like variety when it comes to harassing people because he's quite inventive in his methods of degradation and humiliation. He's blocking the doorway to her class and like always she attempts to slip past him, eyes closed and head bowed in silent prayer that he'll grant her this small reprieve from the misery her life has become, but not surprisingly he isn't so kind.

In one swift moment Karofsky lunges forward and threads a hand through Rachel's hair, turning them both so her back is against the wall beside the classroom door. He presses his forearm against her chest to keep her still as the hand tangled in her hair tugs her head to one side so that he can bury his face into her neck, sucking and biting on her exposed flesh greedily.

"Don't move," he barks gruffly into her ear.

The sensation of Karofsky's mouth against her skin makes Rachel's shudder and squirm against the wall, but she does her best to keep still and not disobey his threat against resisting. He had handled her especially roughly the last time she had tried to worm her way out of his grasp and cry for help in public, so she had decided it was best to heed his warnings and just let him get it over with. She sucks in a shaky breath as Karofsky's teeth sink into her flesh and squeezes her eyes shut, trying to imagine it's not his lips on her.

As Karofsky continues to give her an unwanted hickey and murmur further threats against her neck, Rachel opens her eyes and peers over his shoulder. People are looking at them, pointing and laughing, snickering behind text books and whispering back and forth, but no one notices the tears in her eyes or the terror stricken look on her face as she allows Karofsky to use her in plain sight. Or if they do notice, they choose to ignore it.

After a couple of minutes Karofsky pulls back to admire his work. "Make sure you tell everyone where you got that from," he says.

Rachel doesn't say anything as she numbly rubs at the ugly blemish on her neck. She isn't going to tell anyone about it, but she knows Karofsky will and she won't deny it. It would be useless to anyway.

She's still staring at her shoes, waiting for Karofsky to leave, when she hears a familiar voice.

"Gross. Why don't you two get a room," Santana snarks as she strolls by with Brittany at her side.

"I have a room," Brittany adds. "But you two can't have sex in it."

The pair flounce down the hallway holding hands and wearing matching grins. Karofsky beams proudly as he follows after them, pleased his efforts are paying off.

Rachel takes a few seconds to collect herself before entering her first class of the morning. She tells herself once more that she just needs to hold it together for a little while longer, just till Karofsky gets whatever this is out of his system and moves on. She tries not to think about how it's been weeks and the boy still hasn't let up, or how she's growing more and more anxious as the days pass. If she keeps her head down and pretends none of this is happening, she'll be able to survive.

Unfortunately, Quinn is in her first period class and has other plans for her. Their Chemistry teacher had paired them up as lab partners a few days ago and while Quinn had dictated that they not speak while working on the assignment, Quinn breaks her own rule ten minutes into class.

"What the hell is that?" Quinn asks, gesturing to the large unsightly hickey on Rachel's neck with a look of disgust.

"N-nothing," Rachel squeaks out unconvincingly, her hand flying up to cover the mark.

Quinn narrows her focus and leans in to whisper in that harsh icy whisper she always seems to be using to berate Rachel. "Look, I know Finn dumped you and you want him back, but messing around with imbeciles like David Karofsky and Scott Daley isn't going to change anything. So if you're trying to make him jealous then just stop. He's over you and you're embarrassing yourself."

Rachel rolls a beaker between her hands, trying to look unbothered by Quinn's accusation. "I'm not trying to make him jealous. I'm not doing anything," she says.

"Oh, please. I know a desperate cry for male attention when I see one," Quinn scoffs in disbelief. "How do you think I got to be so popular? Only I was smart enough not to actually fool around with any of those idiots. Except Puck, and we all saw how that turned out," she finishes dryly.

"I'm not doing anything with Dave or Scott," Rachel replies quietly. For a moment she's hopeful that Quinn will be the one to see through Karofsky's game and help her. She holds her breath as she waits for Quinn's response.

Quinn rolls her eyes and in an instant Rachel's hopes are shattered. Rachel's lungs deflate and she exhales in quiet defeat. Why would someone like Quinn help a nobody like her?

"Rachel, come on now, this is getting pathetic," Quinn starts before leaning in and lowering her voice, like what she's about to say is too scandalous to speak of at a normal volume. "Do you know what people are saying about you around here? Do you crave attention so much that you're willing to whore yourself out to the lowest form of life at this school to get it?"

Rachel swallows the lump in her throat. She knows technically she's not doing what Quinn is accusing her of, but that doesn't stop her from feeling guilty about it. She may not be a whore in the traditional sense, but she feels like one for allowing Karofsky to use her. She hates what Karofsky does and what boys like Scott say about her, but she just lets it go on because she doesn't know what else to do. She feels powerless to stop it and she's starting to realize she's not the person she thought she was or the person she wants to be. She's weak and pathetic and she allows people to mistreat her because she's too afraid to stop it.

"Just because people say something doesn't mean it's true," Rachel snaps. She's not sure who she's trying to convince more, herself or Quinn. Without another word she turns her back on her lab partner and finishes the rest of the assignment in silence.

* * *

Puck claps his hands together triumphantly when the bell sounds signaling the end of Geometry. "Finally," he says, throwing his head back in exhaustion. It's his toughest class and he doesn't care that the entire room is staring at him now because it's finally over. It's taco day in the cafeteria and he can't wait to get to lunch and enjoy some tasty Mexican food.

As he's strutting towards the cafeteria like a total bad ass, he spots Rachel at the other end of the hallway. Well, he's pretty sure it's Rachel. Her face is obscured by the ridiculously high pile of books she's carrying in her arms, but he recognizes her legs in one of her tiny pleated skirts. She has killer legs and he'd recognize them anywhere.

The sight of the petite girl teetering on 4 inch platform heels with what has to be every text book she owns in her arms makes him laugh. Deciding to be the gentleman his mother was always nagging him to be, he makes his way over to her to help with the pile of books, but as he approaches a couple of Cheerios bump Rachel from behind. Rachel wobbles a little on her heels before crashing to her knees, her books flying out of her hands and scattering across the hallway.

Rachel looks surprised, but she tucks her head into her chest and immediately starts to gather her belongings as she crawls around on her hands on knees. Puck's kneeling down to help when he hears the girls start to taunt her.

"On your knees again, Berry?" one of the girls asks haughtily. "You sure do spend a lot of time like that."

Rachel glances up quickly and Puck can see tears in her eyes.

"Aw, is the little whore crying?" the second girl mocks.

"Like you're one to talk, Kate. Everyone knows you fell from the top of the whore tree and banged every guy on the way down. Including me," Puck shoots back as he gets to his feet with an armful of Rachel's books.

Kate rolls her eyes and huffs. "You're defending this slut, Puckerman? Wow, she really must be good."

"Why don't you two go do something useful," Puck says, annoyed he can't do more to defend Rachel's honor against a couple of cheerleaders.

The girls seem shocked that Puck is picking Rachel Berry over them, but they quickly school their expressions back into looks of bored contempt.

"Come on, let's get out of here. I'm sure Berry wants to _thank _Puck for his help," one of them says with a smirk.

The two cheerleaders disappear and Puck offers a hand to Rachel. Warily, she accepts it and Puck helps her to her feet, taking the books from her arms.

"What do you have a test in like every subject later, or something?" he asks.

Rachel blinks away the tears remaining in her eyes and shakes her head. "No."

"Alright, so let's go put some of these back in your locker then." He starts walking towards Rachel's locker, a little surprised with himself for even knowing where it is.

"No, I can't," Rachel calls out nervously.

"Can't go to your locker?" he ask. "Why not?"

"I-he-" she falters. It would be safe if Puck was with her. "Never mind. Lets go."

Puck stands besides Rachel with her books in his arms as she opens the combination to her locker, scanning the hall for Karofsky every few seconds. When she gets the door open, she places the books she had already used back in the locker and only leaves the ones for her afternoon classes out.

Puck frowns at the small pile as she takes it from him. "That's still way too many. That stack probably weighs more than you do. Why don't you just take what you need for next class and come back later?"

Rachel shakes her head and closes the locker. "This is easier," she insists.

"Whatever," Puck mumbles. It doesn't seem like the brightest thing to do but he doesn't feel like arguing with her. He's dragging his eyes back up from her legs, which he seems to have trouble avoiding, when he spots the bandage on her hand. "What happened to your hand?"

Rachel adjusts the books in her arms awkwardly. Maybe it would be easier to carry a bag if she was going to keep this up. "Oh. I spilled some coffee on myself. It was rather careless of me."

Puck nods and gives her another once over. He can't actually see anything different about her, but he can sort of sense it. Like some weird Jewish intuition or something.

Rachel clutches the remaining books to her chest and glances around the hallway once again. "Well, thank you for helping me, Noah" she says with a small smile. "I'll see you in Glee later." She turns to walk off but Puck stops her.

"Rach, wait. Come have lunch with me," he blurts out.

Rachel hesitates, her back still to Puck, before turning around to answer. "I'm not very hungry."

"Come on, it's taco day," Puck says excitedly.

"I'm vegan," she responds.

Puck rolls his eyes. Stupid girly grass diet. "So, I doubt this place uses real meat anyway." This earns him a slight laugh from Rachel and he happy to see it. "At least come sit with me and watch me eat," he adds.

Rachel mulls over the offer. She wouldn't mind the company for a change. "Can we eat in the choir room?"

"Fine, whatever," Puck agrees. "Let's just go before they run out of hard taco shells," he whines.

They make their way though the halls, Rachel glancing furtively around as they do. With Puck by her side no one hassles her, at least not to her face, but she can still hear her classmates whispering as they pass. She doesn't have to imagine what they could be saying about her, she knows.

Rachel stays close to Puck as he takes his place in the cafeteria line; she won't dare risk being alone in the lunchroom these days. While Puck loads his tray with what passes for taco meat at McKinley High, Rachel does a quick sweep of the room and spots Karofsky, Scott and a few other boys sitting at the table in the center of the cafeteria. Scott catches her eye and blows her kiss, but Karofsky appears too wrapped up in his conversation with the other guys to notice her. She just wants to get to the choir room before he catches her, but Puck is passing her a tray, saying something about a three taco limit and telling her he could get double if she carries a tray herself.

"Noah, can we get out of here already," Rachel pleads, trying to sound more annoyed than afraid.

"You can't rush taco making, babe. There's an art to it," Puck says as he spoons small mountains of taco meat into the three hard shells on his tray.

Rachel turns away from Puck with a sigh and taps her foot impatiently against the floor. She can feel the anxiety creeping up on her as her chest tightens and her stomach knots. She just wants to get out of there before someone notices her.

Finally Puck finishes crafting his last three tacos and walks her to the cashier, grabbing a pre-packaged salad and a couple of bottles of water as he does.

"You gotta eat something," he says with a shrug when she gives him a questioning look.

Noah pays for the food, even though Rachel puts up a fight, and they leave, his hand on the small of her back as they do. Rachel relaxes into his touch, feeling somewhat safe with him so close as they walk.

The choir room is empty, just as Rachel predicted it would be.

"You eat lunch in here a lot?" Puck asks as he pulls a couple of chairs into the center of the room, placing his tray on one and Rachel's on another. He grabs two more chairs and sets them on either side of the makeshift chair-table he assembled in the center of the room.

Rachel shrugs. "Sometimes." Truthfully, she's had lunch in the choir room every day for the last three weeks, but usually there isn't actually any food present. Stopping by the cafeteria to grab something by herself would be a death wish, and packing lunch from home would invite a lot of unwanted questions from her fathers.

They eat in tense silence for a few minutes, eyeing each other suspiciously as Rachel picks at her salad and Puck shovels tacos into his mouth.

"So you wanna tell me what the hell is going on with you lately?" Puck finally asks around a mouthful of taco.

Rachel freezes and stops fidgeting with the plastic lid of her salad container. "Nothing," she says.

"The rumors? Karofsky? Daley? Those girls in the hallway?" Puck prods.

Rachel shakes her head, unwilling to have this conversation with someone else who probably won't believe her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come on, Rach. Don't play dumb. What's going on? Why are people saying those things about you? They're not true, right? You didn't really fool around with those jerks, did you?" he asks. His tone isn't as accusing as Quinn's, but he sounds wary, doubtful even, like he's hoping for a reason not to believe the rumors.

"How can you even ask me that?" Rachel asks, her voice a pained whisper. "Do you think they're true?"

"I don't know. No. I mean, it doesn't sound like you, but then why do people seem so damn sure of it? And why aren't you denying it?" he wonders out loud. "I mean, last year if this type of shit was being spread about you, you would have called your daddies' lawyers and had every one of those assholes sued for slander. You would have used that loud voice of yours to rant and rave to anyone who'd listen. But you haven't said jack shit about it, so I don't know what to believe. Look, I won't judge you if it's true."

Rachel carefully seals her salad container and places it on the chair-table. "Is this why you asked me to have lunch with you? So you could interrogate me?" she demands, hastily getting to her feet.

"Gees. Relax," Puck says. "I just wanted to know if it was true. Can you blame a guy for being curious?"

"Oh. You're curious?" she asks coldly. "You want to know if it's true? If I'm less of a prude now? Maybe now you can finally get what I wouldn't give up when we dated last year. Is that why you asked me to lunch? You think since I'm such a slut now I'll just do you right here?"

"Whoa! No! That's not what I said," Puck shouts. He too pushes his lunch away and jumps to his feet now. He can't help getting riled up, Rachel is always so intense and that intensity can be kind of contagious. "You know what, forget this. Forget I even tried."

"No. Come on, Puck," Rachel continues. "Aren't you going to take what you came for? No one's around. Let's go, drop your pants." She doesn't know why she's pushing him or what she'd do if he calls her bluff, but she's just so angry.

"Rachel, knock it off. That's not what this is about," he insists.

She takes a step forward, slowly, seductively. "This isn't about me sucking your cock?" she drawls.

The words sound wrong coming from her, harsh and ugly, and Puck bristles at the sound of them.

"Jesus Christ, Berry."

Rachel narrows her eyes on the boy like he's her prey and cocks her head to one side. "You've heard the rumors, apparently I'm quite skilled. You know, Miss Pillsbury was right. Not having a gag reflex really is something to be thankful for."

He swallows hard. "Rachel. Stop."

"Come on, baby. Whip it out and I'll make it worth your while." She's doing her best to sound calm, sexy even, but she thinks the fact that she's practically trembling might give her away.

Puck tenses, his jaw clenching. He can't help it if he thinks the prospect of what Rachel is offering is totally hot, and if it was said under any other circumstance he'd be all over that, but he knows she's hurt and just trying to get back at him. "Alright, you can stop now. You proved your point."

"I don't have all day, Puckerman! I'm a busy girl. Can't keep the other boys waiting." She takes another step forward, grabbing for his belt buckle with shaky hands. She's so blinded by pain and rage that she doesn't even think about what she's doing. She just wants to show him that he's out of line. _So out of line._ Show him that he has no right to question her like this. Show him that he's no better than Dave Karofsky or Scott Daley if he thinks any of their lies are true. She just wants to push back for once.

Puck closes his hands around hers, stilling her movements. His voice is calm now, sincere. "Rachel, stop. I know what you're trying to do. I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. Just stop. I shouldn't have even questioned it."

Rachel retreats, her chest heaving as she struggles to keep her composure.

"I thought you knew me better than that, Noah," she chokes out.

"I was just trying to get to the bottom of this mess! The guys are saying all this shit about you and," he trails off, unwilling to admit he even entertained the thought of their claims being true.

"And you believed them," she says. It's not a question, she knows.

She's crying now and he feels like shit for not knowing better.

"How the hell am I supposed to defend you when I don't know what's going on," Puck says angrily. How did he always manage to mess things up so badly? He kicked that Sawyer kid's ass for talking trash about Rachel, that should count for something, but then he had to go and do this.

"I didn't ask you to defend me!" Rachel shrieks back at him.

"Well, I'm gonna do it anyway so you might as well tell me what's going on so I know who and what I'm defending you against."

"There's nothing to tell, Noah!" she cries. "People are saying nasty things about me. Is that really so surprising around here? I'm the school punching bag. It's no different from when you used to throw slushies in my face and call me a freak."

That effectively silences him. His jaw snaps closed, his words dying on his lips.

Rachel wipes the tears from her eyes and crosses her arms across her chest with one last regretful shake of her head. "I'm going to go. Thanks for lunch."


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Thanks again for following this story and for reviewing. I really love hearing what you all think so please let me know how you feel about this chapter. It's a little longer than usual so hopefully that makes up for my diminishing updating pace. I actually had the majority of this chapter written for a while, it just took some time to edit and finish up. **

* * *

"Will you slow down!" Blaine calls as he jogs after a determined Kurt. "Did you run track at McKinley or something? You're surprisingly fast."

Kurt glances back and pauses, waiting for Blaine to catch up so that he can grab the other boy's hand and pull him along at a suitable pace. "The only running I did was away from the bullies who were looking to toss me into dumpsters. But I did so fabulously," he says with a flourish.

"Kurt," Blaine laughs lightly, allowing himself to be dragged through Dalton's stately front hallway by Kurt. "If the Headmaster catches us running in the halls, we'll get detention."

Kurt rolls his eyes and clicks his tongue dismissively. Despite missing his friends at McKinley, he really was enjoying his time at Dalton. Classes were actually challenging, no one was pushing him into lockers, and of course there was Blaine, but he wasn't exactly fond the school's comprehensive code of conduct, which was rigorously enforced.

"It's nearly a 2 hour drive back to Lima, that will give us just enough time to catch Rachel leaving Glee practice," Kurt explains hastily.

"I want to help Rachel as much as you do, but why exactly do we have to surprise ambush her at school? Can't we just call her and ask her to meet us for coffee again?" Blaine breathes out as he pushes his legs to keep pace with Kurt. They finally make it outside to the student parking lot and Kurt slows a bit to rummage through his messenger bag, allowing Blaine to catch his breath.

"She's in avoidance mode," Kurt says as he fishes his car keys out of his bag. "She hasn't answered a single call or text message since she ran out of the Lima Bean yesterday, and Rachel never ignores a chance to talk, unless she's hiding something."

They reach Kurt's SUV and climb in, both turning to toss their bags onto the backseat before facing forward again and fastening their seat belts.

"She thinks if she ignores the problem it will go away, but it won't," Kurt continues. He turns his key in the engine but lets the car idle as he talks. "I learned that the hard way and I'm not going to sit by and watch Rachel suffer through Karofsky's reign of terror."

"We still don't have a plan, Kurt," Blaine interjects worriedly. "You saw how quickly she shut down yesterday, not to mention that completely ridiculous story about banging her wrist against her porch railing. What makes you think we can get through to her today?"

Kurt ponders Blaine's question. He had thought about that all last night, he even considered going above Rachel's head to her fathers, or Mr. Schue, or Figgins even, but he thought better of it. Karofsky got away with tormenting him because there was no evidence of the footballer's bullying when Kurt finally decided to speak up, but without Rachel's cooperation there wouldn't even be a formal accusation against him and surely Mr. Karofsky could get the school board to overturn any punitive action that may be taken against his son without one.

If Karofsky is actually going to be punished this time around, and Kurt is determined to make that happen, Rachel will need to be the one leading the charge against him. But as of now Rachel isn't even on board, she's telling lies and refusing to admit anything is wrong. He'll have to convince her to reconsider and turn in Karofsky herself so that the case for his expulsion will be solid. With Kurt's previous complaint on file and a current claim of abuse from Rachel, supported by the bruises on her wrist, Figgins will have to expel Karofsky. Kurt just wants to make sure their case is airtight so that Karofsky won't slip through the cracks again and he needs Rachel's cooperation for that to happen.

"We have to," Kurt says after a few moments of silence, his voice serious. "I don't know how, but we just have to. Karofsky is dangerous. He's not just your typical high school bully, there's something dark inside him. If we don't do something soon Rachel can get seriously hurt."

Blaine stretches his hand across the car's center console to squeeze Kurt's thigh sympathetically. He knows this isn't just about Rachel, of course Kurt's concerned for his friend, but Blaine imagines Kurt wants some closure for himself as well.

"We'll help her," Blaine says.

Kurt smiles and puts the car in reverse, backing out of the parking spot.

* * *

Rachel stews silently through two tedious hours of Glee rehearsal. Puck tries to talk to her several times but she stubbornly refuses to respond to him. She sees no reason to converse with people who are all too willing to think the worst of her, not when she expected more from them. Eventually Puck mumbles something about chicks being bipolar and sulks off to sit by himself in the back row, but Rachel feels his eyes on her for the rest of rehearsal.

She would have skipped Glee all together, she's not exactly present anyway, but Karofsky doesn't have practice this afternoon and he'd likely be lingering outside waiting for her. She knows he's pretty committed to antagonizing her, but she doesn't think he'd wait around for two additional hours just to catch her coming out of Glee. So while she isn't exactly happy about seeing Noah or any of her Glee teammates at the moment, at least it's safe in the choir room.

Mercedes and Artie finish the last run through of their duet and Rachel exhales in relief, grateful the day is finally over. She's cautiously optimistic about being able to make it home without being accosted by Karofsky in the hallways, but she's not stupid enough to take it for granted.

She usually walks home from school, her fathers are busy at work in the afternoons and she doesn't have her license yet. She never minded in the past, walks were a great source of motivation for Glee ideas, but now she's a little wary about walking over a mile alone, even if Karofsky should be long gone. She really misses having a boyfriend right now because at least Finn drove her home when he didn't have football practice. She laughs ruefully to herself as it occurs to her that the thing she misses most about Finn is his beat up old truck, but the unexpected sound of a familiar name snaps her out of her thoughts.

"Kurt! What are you doing here?" Mr. Schue asks excitedly as the two boys stroll into the choir room. The teacher rises from his perch at the piano and walks over to his former student to greet him with a warm hug. He smiles politely at Blaine as Kurt introduces them and the three briefly exchange pleasantries as the rest of the Glee club shouts out cheerful greetings of their own and clamors out of their seats to welcome Kurt back home with hugs and hearty pats on the back.

Rachel watches the scene unfold with mixed emotions. It's wonderful to see Kurt laughing and smiling in McKinley once again, but the sight of her friends fills her with a sense of panic. She knows they're here to confront her about yesterday's incident at the Lima Bean and she's not looking forward to having to lie to them again. Not only did it make her feel terrible, but she was _awful_ at it. You would think a performer with her acting talents would be better suited for the task, but her daddies had instilled a strong sense of honesty in her from a very young age. After all, honesty was one of the three pillars of the Berry household.

Mr. Schue and the others continue to fuss over Kurt and Rachel contemplates slipping out of the room unnoticed. That would save her from having to lie again, but before she can complete her escape plan, a pang of jealousy washes over her.

She feels so incredibly petty and selfish for even entertaining such a feeling, but she's actually jealous of Kurt. She's jealous of the boy who was run out of his own school by a relentless and violent bully. But Kurt is safe now and he's attending a much better school than McKinley, where he has Blaine and plenty of new friends, and of course he still has friends and a teacher at McKinley who care about him deeply. Mr. Schue had been so supportive of Kurt during his Karofsky ordeal, and even now the teacher seems genuinely happy to see him. Rachel knows she'll never illicit that level of care or fondness from her teacher or teammates and it hurts more than she'd like to admit. She's so distracted by her own misplaced emotions that she misses her chance to escape.

"While I appreciate the warm welcome," Kurt says as he places a hand over his heart affectionately and smiles, "I'm not planning to return to McKinley any time soon. Not until this place is safe from neanderthals like Karofsky. Blaine and I just stopped by to see Rachel. I thought you'd guys be finishing up by now."

The mention of her name fills Rachel with dread and anxiety and she begins to wring her hands nervously in her lap. She knows the boys are here to further interrogate her about her strange behavior at the Lima Bean yesterday and she just can't have that conversation again. She missed her chance to escape unnoticed but that doesn't mean she still can't escape. She'll just say her dads are expecting her and bolt for the door. Kurt and Blaine won't force the conversation in public.

Rachel hastily shoves her belongings into her bag, her hands shaking and her heart pounding as she does so. As she opens her mouth to rattle off yet another abhorrent lie to her friends, she's rudely interrupted.

"Come to collect Berry and take her back to Dalton where she could live proudly as an out transsexual?" Santana asks with a satisfied smirk.

Santana's insult redirects the focus back to Rachel and she sinks back against her chair. Several of her teammates are looking at her, waiting to see if she'll respond. A few weeks ago she might have had the gall to shoot an insult back at the girl, or to at least look indignant about being publicly mocked, but now she just sinks lower into her seat, wishing she could disappear as she feels the heated gazes of a dozen pairs of eyes on her.

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Blaine states plainly.

If Blaine notices a few members of the New Directions eying him strangely for publicly coming to Rachel's defense, he doesn't let on. Finn looks clearly perplexed by the ease with which Blaine defends Rachel, and Puck has the decency to feel somewhat guilty for not thinking to jump to Rachel's defense first, but Santana seems unfazed by the remark.

"Santana," Kurt begins as he turns towards her. "I see you haven't changed a bit."

She shrugs. "Why mess with perfection?"

Mr. Schue eyes Rachel briefly, as if he's trying to figure out what the boys could possibly want with her, before turning back to Kurt. "Oh, well perfect timing then. We're just about done here."

He addresses the club. "Okay. That's it for today, guys. Good work and remember to practice your parts at home. See you tomorrow."

The rest of the club slowly files out of the room, a few waiting to talk to Kurt some more but he's quick to shoot down their attempts at lengthy conversations. He can see Rachel squirming in her seat from the corner of his eye and he knows she wants to run. Kurt nudges Blaine and points him in Rachel's direction so that he can keep her from leaving while Kurt politely dismisses his friends and former teammates.

Blaine plops down in the seat to Rachel's left and gestures to her neatly bandaged left hand. "Does it still hurt?" he asks.

Rachel shrugs. "A little, but it's fine. Thank you for your assistance yesterday."

"Of course," Blaine says sincerely. "May I?" he makes a move towards the injured hand and Rachel hesitantly nods her consent.

Blaine examines Rachel's hand, carefully turning it over and running his thumb across the purple finger shaped bruises on her wrist with a frown. Rachel doesn't object or pull away from him because he's already seen the marks and there's no use in hiding them now. Besides, she had a perfectly plausible cover story that she'll have to reiterate for the boys' benefit when Kurt joins them.

As Blaine cradles Rachel's hand in his, Will catches a glimpse of the white bandage wrapped around his student's hand. He slips the last pieces of sheet music into his brief-case and approaches the pair.

"Did you hurt yourself, Rachel?" Will asks as he nears.

Rachel's body stiffens instantly and she hastily pulls her hand back from Blaine before realizing Mr. Schue is looking at the bandage on her hand and not the bruises on her wrist. "Oh, yes, but it's nothing really. Just a little burn from an unfortunate coffee accident. I can be such a klutz." She offers a small nervous laugh, despite the nagging thought that he hadn't noticed at any point during their two hour rehearsal. No one had noticed actually, except Noah earlier in the day.

"Ah, you need to be more careful, Rachel. We need you in top form for Regionals," Will tells her with a smile. He speaks with obvious levity, but Rachel is too hurt by his and the rest of the club's lack of concern to not take it wrongly.

Once Mr. Schue is gone Blaine slides his chair closer to Rachel's so that their bodies are touching. Rachel seems lost in her own thoughts so he doesn't ask for permission when he reaches out to take her hand, but this time he reaches across her lap and grasps Rachel's unbandaged hand and turns it over. He's not at all surprised to find similar finger-shaped bruises on her right wrist. He softly strokes his thumb across the offending marks like he did on her other wrist.

Rachel lifts her eyes to meet Blaine's and he can see a flash of panic there, but Blaine's gaze is warm and unwavering and Rachel can tell he knows. Her shoulders slump slightly and she lowers her gaze in defeat, allowing Blaine to continue to trace the bruises on her skin. After a moment Blaine takes both of the girl's hands in his own. He doesn't speak but continues to gently ghost his thumbs over Rachel's wrists. Rachel finds the boy's gentle touch calming and rests her head against his shoulder as he lulls her into a state of peacefulness. It's the first time she's felt safe in her own school in weeks and she wants to savor it.

When Kurt finally makes his way over to Rachel and Blaine he raises an eyebrow at the intimate position the pair are locked in. Blaine notices him first and wordlessly displays Rachel's wrists so Kurt can see the matching set of bruises. At the sight of his friend's marred skin Kurt's confusion, as well as the jealousy he couldn't help, dissipates instantly. Kurt's lips set into a tight thin line as he takes in his former teammate's appearance more carefully. She seems sad, quiet, listless, not at all like the Rachel Berry he had left behind not too long ago. It's only been a couple of months, how did things get so bad without anyone noticing in his absence?

"We need to talk," Kurt finally says. The look in his eyes is a cross between fiercely determined and justifiably concerned. He pulls a chair from the front row and swings it around so that it's facing Rachel and Blaine. Sitting down with a heavy sigh he begins. "We know Karofsky has been hurting you, Rachel."

Rachel straightens up a bit and removes her hands from Blaine's comforting hold so that she can clasp them together in her lap. "It's nothing," she says, not even bothering to repeat her previous lie. She had been prepared to deny it but she's just so _tired_.

"It most certainly is not nothing!" Blaine snaps with fervor Kurt is unaccustomed to seeing from his crush. He turns slightly in his seat so that he's facing Rachel. "That jerk is hurting you badly enough to leave bruises! First he drives Kurt out of his school and then he starts picking on a girl! Well, enough is enough. Your school can't ignore this anymore. Come one, we're talking to the principal and making sure this Dave Karofsky is expelled." Blaine stands and offers a hand to Rachel but the girl shrinks back and clings to her seat, shaking her head profusely.

"No," Rachel protests. "That won't do any good. No one wants to hear me whine."

"It's not whining, Rachel. Karofsky has been hurting you. What is he pushing you into lockers? Grabbing you by the wrists? What else?" Kurt asks as he takes inventory of everything he knows or suspects so far.

Rachel shakes her head some more, her lip tucked between her teeth. "Nothing, Kurt. He hasn't done anything. Just drop it."

"If you don't speak up, Rachel, no one will be able to help you," Blaine interjects.

"Rachel, please. Talk to Figgins, or Mr. Schue if you'd prefer. But don't pretend this isn't happening, you need to tell someone before you get seriously hurt," Kurt pleads.

"Look, I appreciate your concern. Really. You're the only ones who seem to care in fact," she says thoughtfully, "but I already tried telling Mr. Schue and it got me nowhere. He didn't care, he wouldn't even let me speak, so I seriously doubt Figgins will want to hear it either."

"You gotta tell someone, Rach. What about your fathers? If they came in to talk to Figgins with you, he'd have to listen," Kurt suggests. He can't imagine Mr. Schue ignoring Rachel's plea for help outright, there had to be a misunderstanding. Kurt had his fair share of issues with Mr. Schue during his time with the New Directions and had often felt overlooked by the choir director, but Mr. Schue was sincere in his efforts to help when he finally caught onto what Karofsky was doing. Sure, the man could be a little clueless at times, but he did genuinely care for his students and Kurt knew he'd be just as concerned for Rachel as he was for him.

Rachel remains unmoved. "I'm not involving my fathers. They think so highly of me and I absolutely refuse to disappoint them. They have no idea what it's like for me here and I don't want them to know I'm such a loser. I never went to them before to help me with a bully and I'm not going to start now."

Kurt sighs, he knows what it's like to want to protect a parent from the truth about their child. "Then just let me and Blaine take you to see Figgins now. I know the school couldn't do anything to protect me, but they're aware that Karofsky is a problem now. Your testimony will only be further proof that he is a danger to the entire student body and they can finally expel him."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Kurt. You know what it's like around here. Guys like Karofsky have all the power. When he says something, everyone just takes his word for it no matter how untrue it is," Rachel says emphatically. "Everyone already thinks I'm a slut because of him, I don't need the entire school hating me because I'm a tattle-tale too. And that's even if anyone believes me, which I doubt they will. Besides, if Karofsky finds out I spilled and Figgins doesn't expel him... he'll _kill_ me."

"Did he say that?" Kurt asks, a familiar knot forming in his stomach. "Did he threaten you?"

Rachel bites her bottom lip in thought. Dave had threatened her a couple of times, mostly when they were alone, but that's not what she's really afraid of. "He threatened you," she admits quietly.

Kurt exchanges a look with Blaine before standing up and setting his jaw in determination. Suddenly Rachel's silence makes sense. The Rachel he knows wouldn't let anyone threaten her, but her friends were a different story. She'd do just about anything for those who dared to call her a friend.

"That son-of-a-bitch! Using me to get to you? I can't believe him! That's it! No more running." Kurt grabs Rachel's uninjured hand and yanks her out of her seat. "We're putting a stop to this right now."

"Kurt! Kurt, wait! Stop," Rachel protests as she tries to twist her arm free.

Kurt seems to realize he's being a little too forceful and releases Rachel's hand immediately. "Rachel, we have to tell Figgins."

"No," Rachel says firmly. "He already ran you out of this school, there's no knowing what he'll do next. I'm not risking your safety just because some jock is pushing me around. I can handle the inappropriate touching and the unwanted kisses, but I wouldn't be able to handle him hurting you. And if he's this rough with me I can only imagine how rough he'll be with you. I won't do it. You go to Figgins and I'll deny everything." She tosses her head back in defiance and folds her arms across her chest.

"Rachel, you can't let him continue to do this to you," Blaine says.

"What do you mean touching and kissing? I thought he was just pushing you around and spreading rumors?" Kurt asks.

Kurt gravely notes that he and Rachel share the unfortunate experience of being kissed by Dave Karofsky against their will. He wonders if Karofsky first kissed Rachel to convince himself he was straight, or if it was just about appearances. He wonders if Karofsky is as forceful with her as he was with him in the locker room. Then he remembers that Rachel's wrists are bruised a deep purple and she can't even withstand the gentle pressure of a hug from a friend. Of course Karofsky is forceful with Rachel, because he's filled with rage and self loathing that he takes out on unsuspecting victims. Suddenly Kurt feels sick with guilt. By leaving McKinley he had made Rachel Karofsky's number one target. And now she's enduring Karofsky's torture on his behalf without understanding why Karofsky is so set on proving his masculinity. Kurt debates telling Rachel what he knows about Karofsky, but can't bring himself to out a closeted kid, even if that kid is as violent and hateful as Dave Karofsky.

A panic-filled look flashes across Rachel's eyes as she registers what she actually said. "It's not a big deal," she says, interrupting Kurt's internal battle. "Karofsky just seems to want everyone to think we're an item, or rather he wants them to think I perform sexual favors for him on command. So he's quite fond of public displays of affection," Rachel says contemptuously. "But despite what Santana chooses to believe and share with the rest of the student body, those rumors are categorically untrue!"

"So he's telling everyone that you...?" Blaine trails off in question.

"Yes," Rachel says.

"But you haven't," Blaine says.

Rachel's thankful that Blaine doesn't phrase it as a question, but she still can't help getting a little heated over the topic. "No! Of course not!"

"And everyone thinks you have?" he continues.

"Yes," Rachel sighs. "Karofsky makes sure they have reason to believe it. And _some people_ also seem to think it's within their right to accost me and demand similar favors from me," she says scornfully. Instantly she regrets her disclosure. As much as she doesn't want to talk about Karofsky, she's even less willing to talk about Scott Daley and the incident in the bathroom. Fortunately the boys appear to be too outraged to press her for details.

"So on top of being physically bullied and slandered you're also being sexually harassed?" Kurt concludes. "This is unbelievable!"

"It's really not that big of a deal, guys. I'm handling it fine," Rachel insists, but the way she's anxiously pulling on her sweater and bashfully digging the toe of her Mary Janes into the title says otherwise.

"Like hell you are," Kurt snaps. He starts towards the door, once again focused on speaking to Principal Figgins. "I've heard enough. If you won't tell, I will."

"Kurt, no! I'll deny it!" Rachel cries, stomping her foot petulantly on the choir room floor. When Kurt ignores her protests and marches on she follows him out into the hallway, calling after him. "Kurt, stop! I'll deny it! I'll deny everything!"

Blaine jogs to keep up with the impassioned pair. Kurt is marching rather determinedly towards the principal's office while Rachel trails behind shouting for him to stop with her finger pointed at his back. They reach their destination quickly but discover that the door to the front office is closed. Kurt stands cross-armed in front of it glaring through the glass at the dark empty office.

"Ha!" Rachel declares triumphantly. "Figgins went home already."

"We'll come back tomorrow and tell him then," Kurt says with a nod towards Blaine, who looks rather uncomfortable at being pulled into the middle of Kurt and Rachel's fight.

"There's nothing to tell. I told you I was handling it just fine," Rachel argues.

"You're definitely not fine, sweetie," Kurt tells her gently.

"Don't you understand, Kurt? He'll _hurt_ you. I won't let that happen." She sounds so desperate and defeated and this particular tone of voice seems considerably un-Rachel-like to Kurt.

Kurt fixes his eyes on his friend. "I know you think you're protecting me, Rachel, but you're not. Guys like Karofsky don't need a reason to hurt people and if he wants to come after me again, he will, whether you keep his harassment a secret or not. It's an empty threat, and even if it wasn't, I wouldn't want you enduring that animal's torment on my behalf. Please, you have to tell someone." Now it's his turn to sound desperate.

"I can't. I won't." Rachel tries to shake it all off and offer the boys an encouraging smile. "It's okay. I can handle it."

"He's getting to you, Rach, I can see it in your eyes," Kurt starts, and it's only as he talks that he realizes just how bad things have gotten in his absence. "He's getting to you like he got to me, and it _kills_ me to know that you're putting up with that for me. I can take care of myself. I'm in a safe place now and things are good," he smiles at Blaine before looking back to Rachel. "But unless you're thinking of transferring schools, you'll have another year and a half of this. I know you're strong, Rachel, you're one of the strongest people I know, but can you really take another year and a half of this?" He pauses to give Rachel a chance to protest but she lowers her head in shameful silence. "And what if things escalate and he seriously hurts you?" Kurt presses on. "That's not okay! It's not okay for someone to grab you so roughly they leave bruises on your wrists! It's not okay for someone to push you into a locker so hard that you wince whenever your friends hug you hello! It's not okay to be kissed or touched against your will, ever! And it's not okay to be afraid to walk the halls in your own school! It's not okay and you shouldn't have to handle it!" His voice rises as he grows more emotional and Rachel can't look away from him now. "I understand that you're scared, I was too, but you took notice when I was in trouble and you brought attention to what I was going through. I wish I had had the courage to do it myself, but I needed a push. And now I'm here to push you to find that courage and walk into Figgins' office tomorrow and put a _stop_ to this. Because Rachel Berry takes shit from no one. You have it, Rach, you have the courage to stand up to this guy. Don't hold yourself back for me. Please."

"Kurt," Rachel begins tearfully as she considers his words. She knows he's right. It's getting harder and harder for her to come to school each day. Most mornings she considers playing sick so she could stay in bed and not have to face Karofsky, but if the alternative to living in constant fear is Kurt being hurt, then she'll gladly take whatever Karofsky dishes out. "I won't do that to you."

Kurt sighs, displeased that his speech didn't get through to Rachel. "Let's just get out of here." If he can't convince Rachel to speak up on her own behalf, he'll do it for her. It isn't ideal and he had hoped it wouldn't come to that, but it's his only option now. He's already planning his return to McKinley for the next day.

Rachel swallows the growing lump in her throat and blinks away the tears burning her eyes. She wishes she was stronger and smarter and that she didn't have to disappoint her friends like this, but it's the only way she can protect herself and Kurt. She just _can't_ tell. Everyone would think she was making it up for attention and Karofsky would go unpunished. Then he'd be angry and free to continue tormenting her and targeting Kurt in retaliation. No, she absolutely _cannot_ tell.

Blaine swings an arm around her as they walk behind Kurt and she allows herself to be led down the hallway. The trio make their way towards the school's double doors as the gymnasium door swings open behind them.

"Hey Berry!" a voice calls out.

Rachel twists out of Blaine's grasp to see Scott Daley making his way over to her and visibly tenses. Blaine and Kurt mimic her action and also turn to see the source of the voice. Instinctively, Rachel takes a step back, bumping into Blaine before grabbing onto his arm to steady herself. Blaine straightens up when Rachel latches onto his coat, squaring his shoulders back in a protective stance.

Kurt watches curiously as his friend attempts to hide herself from one of his former classmates. He only knows Scott in passing really, they've shared a couple of classes together over the years and Scott had participated in his fair share of dumpster tosses, but for the most part he's just another jock to Kurt.

"I thought we could finish what we started a couple of weeks ago," Scott says as he strides up to Rachel with a grin. Rachel doesn't respond so he decides to address the boys at her side. "Hummel," Scott greets with a nod. "Didn't think you'd be interested in what Berry has to offer, but I guess a warm mouth is warm mouth, right? And this one's definitely got a mouth on her," he cracks with a suggestive wink. "So, what do you like picture Ryan Gosling or something while she's sucking your dick?"

Rachel's cheeks flush red with embarrassment and she buries her head into Blaine's shoulder. It was one thing to hear those comments herself, but it's another to have her friends hear them about her.

Apart from a scandalized gasp of disbelief, Kurt too remains silenced by Scott's outrageous remark, his mouth hanging open in shock.

"Hey, that's enough!" Blaine snaps. "You can't talk about her like that!"

"Who's this?" Scott asks. He gives Blaine an uninterested once over before turning his gaze back to Rachel. "So, you taking two at a time now, Berry? Just can't get enough dick, can you? I got a few buddies who wouldn't mind sharing if that's your thing. Come on, the locker room is free, I was just in there getting an extra workout in. You can make amends for the blue balls you left me with last time." He reaches out to grab Rachel's arm but Kurt bats his hand away.

"Don't even think about touching her," Kurt warns.

"Relax, Hummel. I'll give her back to you boys when I'm done," Scott says. "Let's go, Berry." He cocks his head towards the locker room indicating that he expects Rachel to follow.

Blaine carefully loosens Rachel's vice-like grip on his pea coat and maneuvers her so that she's standing behind him. He steps forward, challenging the other boy. "You're disgusting. She's not going anywhere with you so back off!"

"Get lost, Scott," Kurt says.

Scott rolls his eyes. "Whatever. You can have the little slut today. I'll get mine some other time." The boy walks off shaking his head and muttering to himself.

"The nerve of that guy," Kurt seethes once Scott is gone.

"Has he bothered you before?" Blaine asks as he takes in Rachel's demeanor. She was withdrawn and on edge from when he and Kurt first walked into the choir room, but now the dead look in her eyes is replaced with a look of utter fear and it seems like she's actively trying to disappear.

Rachel tries to avoid looking at either boy. What Scott had said was _humiliating_, but what he had done a couple of weeks ago was _terrifying _and she'd really rather not go over it with them.

"He has, hasn't he?" Kurt asks.

"It's not a big deal," Rachel shrugs.

"What did he do?" Kurt presses.

"Nothing. I'm going home now," Rachel says, attempting to walk away.

Blaine places a hand on her back to stop her but his touch doesn't calm her this time and instead she flinches away from him. Scott's appearance really seems to have shaken her up. "Rachel, what happened?" he asks, his brows knitted in concern.

"It's not a big deal," Rachel sighs. "He can just be very persistent."

"What did he do?" Kurt repeats.

"Kurt, it's really not a big deal," Rachel says.

"Will you stop saying that!" Kurt cries. "When are you going to realize this _is _a big deal? What that guy just said to you is unacceptable and I have a feeling that's not the worse of it."

"You can tell us, Rachel," Blaine urges.

Rachel fingers the fabric of her sweater thoughtfully. When she finally does speak, it's mumbled quickly and just barely audible. "He cornered me in the bathroom one day and tried to make me perform oral sex on him. Apparently Scott took Karofsky's lies about my alleged oral talents as an invitation to affront me and demand a demonstration."

"What do you mean made you?" Blaine bites out.

"He didn't _make _me do anything, he just tried... but a couple of girls came in and he let me go," Rachel explains in a rush. "So, see, everything turned out fine. We don't need to be talking about this."

"Yes we do! You need to talk about it. You need to tell anyone who will listen so this harassment stops," Kurt says forcefully. "What if those girls hadn't come in when they did? What would have happened then?"

Rachel wraps her arms around herself protectively, suddenly feeling a chill in her bones. The thought had been on her mind constantly the past couple of weeks.

"See," Kurt says knowingly. "You have to tell someone."

"I won't. I'm handling it my way."

"You're not handling it at all, Rachel! You're just ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away. These guys will never go away unless you stand up and make them."

"I won't do it, Kurt. I _won't_. I'm not going to tell people how scared I am to come to school every morning. I'm not going to say how badly I want to run whenever I see Karofsky waiting by my locker ready to put on a show for his friends, or how much it hurts when he grabs me by the wrists and throws me around like a rag doll, or how gross and humiliating it is to have his tongue shoved down my throat or his hands on my body without my consent. I won't admit that being called a slut and a whore by strangers in the halls actually _hurts_, a lot. And I'm not going to talk about how I can't even go to the bathroom on my own now because some random goon I've hardly ever talked to thinks he can pull his pants down and _demand_ I fellate him on the spot. And you're right, I have no doubt it in my mind that had those girls not come in when they did, Scott would _not _have taken no for an answer. But I can't talk about that! Because it won't do any good and no one wants to hear it! So just leave it alone!"

"Rachel, you don't have to put up with this," Blaine says.

"Let us help you," Kurt pleads once again.

Rachel shakes her head as the tears spill freely down her cheeks. "Can you just take me home? I don't want to be here anymore."

* * *

**Second Author's Note: I know that seems like an odd place to end it because not much was resolved, but the next chapter is where the action picks up and things take a definitive turn. So I hope you continue to hang in there with me. Thanks for reading. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. I know I suck about updating, but I definitely haven't abandoned this story and I hope and plan to be more timely with future updates. Thanks for reading and supporting this story, the reviews have been amazing and source of constant encouragement in writing this story. Please let me know what you think about this chapter.**

**Warning: I know I put a warning at the start of the story, but I feel compelled to repeat it here. This chapter is very dark and it deals explicitly with sexual violence. So please heed the warning, and if it's difficult for you to read things of that nature you may want to skip this one. Thank you.**

* * *

Kurt drives Rachel home from McKinley in agonizing silence. Blaine rides shotgun while Rachel sits slumped against the right rear door of Kurt's SUV, her knees tucked and folded under her body and her index finger idly tracing shapes on the cool glass of the window. It's quiet and tense and no one makes eye contact or exchanges words. Rachel can tell Kurt is still fuming over her refusal to tell Figgins about Karofsky and Scott. His chest heaves with loud steady sighs and his hands grip the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles are now a pale white. And Blaine, who's normally so poised and put together, looks awkward and anxious, fidgeting nervously in the passenger seat as his eyes dart from Kurt to Rachel without ever settling on either of them. It's horribly uncomfortable and Rachel feels like a little kid who has just disappointed her parents in the worst possible way.

It's not that Rachel doesn't appreciate what Kurt and Blaine were trying to do by coming to McKinley, it's just that they don't get it, and honestly she kind of expected them to. Kurt knows what it's like to be at Karofsky's mercy, he went through this himself, although she guesses he didn't have to deal with the inappropriate sexual overtures, but still, Kurt was a victim of Karofsky's bullying and he should know better than anyone that there's no defeating the jock on his home turf, and McKinley was definitely Karofsky's kingdom. If an accusation from a student as well-liked and respected as Kurt wasn't enough to get Karofsky expelled, surely anything that comes from someone as unpleasant and troublesome as her was sure to be disregarded completely. Kurt had taken a stand and spoken up and it did him absolutely no good. He ended up having to flee the school, and her fathers don't have the money for a private education if it comes down to that. It just in't worth it for her to tell and make Karofsky even angrier when he finds out she tattled on him.

"Rachel?"

Only when she hears Blaine calling her name does Rachel realize that the car has stopped. They're in front of her house and both boys are staring at her.

"You're home," Blaine says.

"Oh. Thank you for the ride," she mumbles, slightly disoriented.

Blaine smiles at her encouragingly as she grabs for her bag, but Kurt is glaring anxiously like he wants to say something. Rachel nervously fumbles for the door handle under his scrutiny, eager to avoid another conversation on the matter.

"Rachel, wait," Kurt rushes out before she can escape.

Her hand hovers over the door handle longingly. She's so close to putting this whole dreadful day beyond her. "I really have to go, Kurt. My fathers are waiting."

"They're not home," Kurt counters. "Both their cars are gone from the driveway. Stop running from this, Rachel."

"I'm not running, Kurt," Rachel sighs. "I really need to get inside and," she trails off, once again reaching for the door handle, but Kurt is quicker. The sound of the car doors locking echoes loudly in her ears. "What are you doing?" she asks.

"Child safety lock," he tells her with a grin. "I'm not letting you out of this car until you promise me that you'll tell Figgins about everything tomorrow."

"Kurt, unlock this door right now," Rachel demands, her voice rising as she tugs on the door handle in vain. She can't believe how ridiculous Kurt is being. "This isn't funny, Kurt! Unlock the door!" She tries the door a few more times and then the window just in case, but neither open. "Kurt, I'm serious. You can't keep me in here forever," she says, slamming her palm against the window in frustration. "Open the damn door!"

"Not until you promise," Kurt says. "I won't let you put yourself through this any longer."

"Kurt! Let me out!" she shrieks. There's a familiar sense of panic slowly building within her and it grips her heart and squeezes mercilessly. She feels stuck, like she can't think or breathe, like she feels when Karofsky pins her to a locker or drags her into a utility closet while his friends watch, like she did when Scott pressed his exposed penis against her stomach and backed her into the bathroom sink.

Kurt rolls his eyes, unmoved by her pleas. "Don't be so dramatic, Rachel. I'll unlock the door when you agree to talk to Figgins. Blaine and I will even come back tomorrow to do it with you if you'd like."

"Kurt! Let me out! Please, Kurt! I can't... you have to... please, just unlock the door." Her eyes are shut now and she's visibly shaking. "You have to let me out of here! Please!" she cries desperately. She clutches at her chest with one hand and bangs frantically against the window with the other.

Kurt stares at his friend in shock. He didn't mean to upset her; he's not even sure what he did to cause her to freak out like that. Was she really that pissed over him locking her in the car? It was just a little prank to get her to listen to him.

"Kurt, unlock the doors. You're scaring her," Blaine warns, sensing Rachel's distress.

Blaine's warning is enough to snap Kurt out of his haze and he hastily punches some buttons on the side panel of the driver's seat.

"It's unlocked," Blaine says when he hears the familiar click.

Rachel keeps still, her eyes glassy, her breathing labored, and her body trembling.

"Rachel, it's unlocked," Kurt repeats. "I unlocked it. Okay? I'm sorry. I just wanted you to listen." When he doesn't get a response, he unbuckles his seatbelt and climbs over the center console and into the backseat with her. "Rachel?" He tries to get her attention by reaching for her, but when his hand closes over her knee, her head snaps up and she pulls away from him so abruptly she ends up slamming her shoulder into the door. "Sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," Kurt mutters apologetically. He just wants to help his friend and he's making everything so much worse. Maybe this thing with Rachel is too much for him to handle, he certainly wasn't expecting it to be this bad.

"Hey Rachel?" Blaine calls softly from the passenger seat. "The door's unlocked now. It's okay. You can leave if you want."

Rachel lifts her head and blinks at him, feeling stupid for reacting the way she did. It's just Kurt and Blaine, she tells herself, what the hell was she so scared of? "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she whispers as she reaches for the door handle once again.

"Rachel, wait. Please," Kurt says, wringing his hands together to stop himself from reaching for her again.

Rachel turns back to Kurt slowly. Ashamed, she wipes some tears from her face and waits for him to speak.

"Will you at least consider telling someone? Please," he urges.

"I can't," she whispers. She's no longer shaking or crying, but she feels like a complete idiot for falling apart over something as silly as being locked in a car with her friends. She just can't deal with feeling trapped the way she does everyday in school, not when she's supposed to be safe.

Kurt readiest himself to make one last appeal to his friend. "Look, I know your scared, and I'm sure seeing Karofsky go unpunished for what he did to me probably doesn't inspire any confidence in the school board's ability to handle this, but Rachel, things have to be pretty bad for you to freak out on me like you just did. You gotta do something about it because not even trying? Just accepting this abuse as something you have to live with? That's not you at all. You've never shied away from doing the difficult thing, you've always stood up for yourself and never let anyone push you around. Don't let those guys take that away from you. Please, just find that courage inside yourself again and put a stop to this. If anyone can do this, it's you. You're the most courageous person I know."

Rachel slips out Kurt's SUV quietly, meekly dabbing at her eyes and straightening out her clothes as she does. There's nothing to say, she had disappointed Kurt enough for one day. She knows he expects more from her, but she just doesn't have any more to give. She's not the girl he thinks she is. She's weak and pathetic and she can barely hold herself together now.

Kurt climbs back into the front seat and watches Rachel disappear into her house before pulling away from the curb."I'm an idiot," he mutters miserably.

"No you're not. You didn't know she'd react that way," Blaine says to comfort him.

"I should have," Kurt insists. "She's been acting weird and jumpy since we saw her at the Lima Bean yesterday. I shouldn't have pushed her like that. And after hearing about what Karofsky and Scott have been doing, I lock her in a car? Like that's going to get her to open up? I'm seriously an idiot."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. You were only trying to help," Blaine says.

"Some good that did," Kurt says dryly. "I just further traumatized her. I don't get it," he says shaking his head. "She's _terrified_ of everyone and everything and yet she still refuses to get help. Who would want to live like that?"

"Were you willing to turn Karofsky in at first?" Blaine asks.

"No," Kurt admits quietly.

"You said it yourself, Kurt. She's scared," Blaine says. "Just give her some time and she'll come around eventually."

"What if she doesn't have time to come around?"

* * *

_Courage._

Rachel repeats Kurt's words in her head as she storms through the doors of McKinley High. Today, she would put an end to Karofsky's tormenting.

She had been up all night feeling ashamed and stupid for how she reacted in Kurt's car and for how she's handled the situation thus far. Embarrassing herself like that in front of her friends had been her breaking point, because after the 6th cup of water had failed to make her any less sad, she decided she wasn't going to take Karofsky's abuse anymore.

At 3:30am she officially gave up trying to sleep and crawled out of bed to set about drafting a detailed pro and con list to support her decision. On the con side she wrote things like:

_People might not believe you_

_They'll think you wanted the attention_

_The student body will hate you for getting a popular jock in trouble_

_You'll be further persecuted in school_

_If Karofsky isn't expelled, things will only get 10x worse_

_Your entire family may need to be uprooted to escape the backlash_

_Your dads might be ashamed of you_

_Everyone will know what a coward you truly are for allowing this_

_Karofsky might kill you_

_Karofsky might kill Kurt_

And while the cons significantly outweighed the pros, which consisted solely of the line: _you won't have to be afraid anymore,_ Rachel couldn't help but feel that one pro was worth it. Her biggest concern had been Kurt's safety all along, and he's the one pushing this, so if he's not afraid, then she won't be.

Still, there's a part of her that's afriad the school won't take her seriously, but if telling meant it all might possibly stop, she'd take the risk. But first she was going to let Karofsky know personally that she was done being his plaything. She had been silent for too long, it was time to make her voice heard once again.

Rachel spots him in front of a class room chatting with a couple of his meathead friends. There's still quite a bit of time before the first bell rings, but Karofsky had taken to showing up to school early so he'd have plenty of time to harass her in the hallways.

"David," she says as she rocks up to the small group of boys with a bit of her old sense of confidence.

Predictably the boys start in with the cat calls and obscene gestures, but Rachel barely pays them any mind.

"This stops now!" she spits at Karofsky, who had scared her so much just days earlier that she couldn't even speak in his presence. "I get that you're a sad pathetic excuse for a man who only feels tough when he's picking on girls and guys half his size, but I will not stand for this abuse any longer! I will personally be informing Principal Figgins of every last deplorable act of intimidation and harassment you've levied against me over the course of these last few weeks. And I have evidence, physical evidence, to support my claims, so don't even think about trying to lie your way out of this one like you did with Kurt. I don't know what your problem is, David, but I'm done being afraid of you!"

The look of pure unadulterated rage in Karofsky's eyes frightens Rachel, but she doesn't back down. When he starts to breathe heavier and his hands ball into tight fists, she's certain he's going to hit her, so she takes a step back but stands tall, refusing to cower to the boy. Karofsky is shaking and seething in anger, but his friends can't seem to contain their laughter. Rachel turns her attention to them, ready to deliver a second but equally powerful speech admonishing them for their childish behavior when she realizes their laughter isn't directed at her, but at Karofsky.

"She just totally laid into you, bro," one boy says, slapping Karofsky on the shoulder with a chuckle.

"What's the problem, Karofsky? Can't keep a chick like Berry in line?" another taunts.

Rachel smiles triumphantly, happy to redirect just a fraction of the humiliation she's had to endure these last few weeks back at the jock. Karofsky pushes his friends back, cursing them in the process, before grabbing Rachel's wrist roughly and pulling her into the empty classroom. She's too startled by the abruptness of his action to react immediately, but once Karofsky slams the door shut behind them she begins to panic, pushing at his chest and attempting to pull her hand free from his grasp. The other jocks are long gone, having disappeared down the hall muttering something about a "lover's quarrel" after Karofsky grabbed hold of her.

"Big mistake, Berry," he says flinging her into a row of desks. She stumbles but stays on her feet as she retreats, her smile long gone. "Big fucking mistake! You should have made like your little faggot friend Kurt and ran far away."

Despite her sense of panic at finding herself stuck in a room with the massive and very angry Dave Karofsky, Rachel manages to find her outrage at the slur. "What is your problem, Karofsky?" she demands.

"I don't have a problem," he sneers. "Maybe if those queer fathers of yours raised you right you would know when to keep your goddamn mouth shut!"

She stops suddenly, her back slamming against the whiteboard as she runs out of room. He quickly closes the gap between them, looming over her small frame threateningly. She's so utterly afraid of what he might do, but standing up to Karofsky has awoken something familiar in her and in classic Rachel Berry fashion she can't stop herself from running her mouth.

"You know what, Karofsky? I think you have a problem with homosexuality. You run Kurt out of the school and insult my fathers, whom you don't even know, because you hate gay people. They say that what we hate most in others is what we hate in ourselves, so maybe the reason you hate gay men so much is because you're one yourself! And you can't stand it! This all-consuming homophobia of yours is probably nothing more than a pathetic attempt to cover up your true gay identity, which your too much of a coward to admit to. And that's why you want people to think we're fooling around!"

She's not sure where that theory came from, but she's proud of herself for coming up with it under such duress. Even in her current state of fear she manages to look satisfied with herself. She crosses her arms across her chest smugly.

Karofsky inhales sharply, but Rachel is so focused on the way his eyes dilates with shock and the way his face contorts with pain and rage that she never sees it coming. His fist crashes into her face with a sickening crack and instantly she can feel the blood rush from her nose and her eyes begin to tear. She cries out in pain as he wretches his arm back and punches her again.

"I'm gay?" Karofsky shouts. Another punch lands on Rachel's cheek, sending her head flying back. He hoists the now trembling girl up by her collar so that he can deliver two punishing punches to her ribcage before slamming her back against the board. "I'll show you how gay I am." He's on her in a flash, tearing open her blouse and grabbing at her breasts roughly.

"What are you doing? Stop it!" Rachel shrieks. "Oh my God, stop it! Stop!" This isn't like all the other times Karofsky has touched her inappropriately. Those instances were cold and calculated, but this, this is frenzied and frantic. Rachel knows this is different, Karofsky isn't putting on a show, there's no one watching, he's violent and out of control and Rachel has never been more terrified in her life. Her face stings and her body aches from Karofsky's punches, but she fights anyway, struggling and thrashing wildly in the small space between his body and the whiteboard, pounding uselessly against his chest, trying so hard to push him away from her. "Get off of me!" she screams.

Karofsky smothers her with his lips, kissing her hard to shut her up before trailing his lips down to her neck. He bites down on her flesh, causing her to yelp and push at him again. "Stop! Get off of me!" This earns her a firm smack across her already bloody face before he pulls her hands above her head and pins them to the whiteboard with his left hand.

"Shut up and stay still!" he commands. Snaking his free hand under her skirt, he yanks her panties down with a quick tug and her panic increases.

She lets out a sharp gasp as her eyes widen. "Wait! No-no-don't. Stop! Stop it! Please, just stop!"

His hand lingers at her center, exploring the unfamiliar territory hesitantly. He's shaking, his hand unsteady as it cups Rachel's center and he hears her gasp. She feels soft and warm and he takes a shuddering breath as he presses his hand against Rachel more firmly, desperate to feel something. But his body doesn't react, his dick remaining limp in his jeans. He frowns down at where his hand has disappeared under Rachel's skirt. Why couldn't he just get hard? Why did God have to make him gay? He rubs at Rachel's flesh angrily as she whines and whimpers against him, but he still doesn't feel anything stirring within himself other than anger.

"Please, stop," she's crying, begging him. He hates the sound of her cries, he hates that not even the feel of a real girl in his hands can make him hard, he hates everything about his fucking miserable life. "Shut up," he bites out before jamming his fingers inside her and hearing her scream out in pain. He hates himself and he hates her for seeing through him. He wants her to feel that pain, he wants everyone to feel as awful as he does on a daily basis. "Can a homo make you feel this good?" he asks, his breath hot against her tightly shut eyes. He's staring down at his own hand as it moves in and out of Rachel, surprised and frightened by his own actions.

Rachel stops struggling suddenly, her body tensing from the pain as he twists and pivots his hand inside her. Her entire body shakes from the force of his angry motions as he repeatedly slams his fingers in and out of her roughly.

"Ahhh...stop! P-please don't...don't do this," she manages through gut wrenching sobs. "Ssstop! I'm s-s-sorry, I..I shouldn't have said what I did. I'm sorry! Please, just stop. A-ah, you're hurting me! Please! Please! Stop!" He ignores her pleas and continues to violate her with his fingers. It's brutal and she can feel the palm of his hand slapping against her body as he thrusts his fingers in and out of her. But his body is too big and her hands are pinned useless above her and she can't stop it.

Even with his hand buried deep inside a girl, he still can't get it up. He's thinking of what a pathetic excuse for a man he is as he removes his hand from between Rachel's legs and begins working on unfastening his belt. He finally gets the buckle open and pulls the thin piece of leather through the loops of his jeans, disregarding it on the floor carelessly.

"No! Please, no more! Please!" Rachel cries as she shakes her head furiously and attempts to launch herself forward. She fails to advance, Karofsky still firmly holding her hands above head and her body successfully pinned against the wall by his bulky frame. He rewards her efforts to free herself with an uppercut to the gut, causing her to slump forward against him and release a pained groan. Next his fly is unzipped and he pushes his jeans and boxers down to just below his knees.

"Please, just stop!" Her eyes widen when he pushes up her skirt, holding the material in place with his body as he reaches between them and grabs hold of himself, preparing to enter her. "Oh God, please don't do this. Please! Please don't do this," she's muttering to herself quietly. Her eyes now shut in anticipation of the pain. This wasn't how this was supposed to go. Confronting him was supposed to be cathartic, it was supposed to provide closure. She feels so fucking stupid for thinking she could take him on.

"I'm no fucking fag. I'll show you how much of a man I am," Karofsky says through clenched teeth. "You'll see," he grunts as he furiously strokes himself with one hand. If he couldn't convince himself, he would have to settle for convincing her. She accused him of being a fag, he can't let that get out. He had desperately wanted his body to react to the feel of a girl's body, but plunging his fingers knuckle-deep inside Rachel Berry had barely caused his dick to twitch so he has to get himself ready.

"Shut up," he growls at a silent Rachel as he grows increasingly more frenzied and panicked in his movements. If he could just get hard, just get excited about this, it would prove he wasn't gay. He should be thinking about how tight and slick Rachel felt around his fingers, but instead his mind drifts to a couple of his football teammates, athletes he admires for more than their talent on the field, movie stars the girls in school were constantly fawning over, and Kurt. His hand moves so quickly as it slides up and down his shaft that he doesn't realize he's climaxed until Rachel gasps in horror, looking down at where he shot his load against her stomach.

He feels her gaping at him, her mouth hanging open in shock and her eyes boring into him with revulsion and confusion, clearly disgusted by him, like she could throw up on his shoes right then and there. "Stop looking at me like that you fucking freak! Stop looking at me! You don't know anything about me! I'm not a fucking homo! Stop looking at me like that!" he screams as he drops her hands and grabs both her shoulders, slamming her back against the board.

Rachel's head bounces off the board as Karofsky repeatedly slams her into the wall. "I'm not gay. I'm not fucking gay," Karofsky is repeating, his voice sounding hoarse and tired. "I'm not. I'll prove it." He clutches his penis in his hand again, this time only needing to place his free hand against Rachel's chest to keep her still. She's much too weak to put up a fight now, her eyes falling shut and her head dropping against her chest. "Just hold still," he says although Rachel is propped up almost lifelessly against the board. "Just hold on. I'll show you." He's crying too now, and he's only semi-erect but he's determined to prove to himself, and to Rachel, that he's not gay. "Would a fag fuck you?" he asks raggedly as he presses himself against her entrance.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Nope, I didn't forget about this story. Sorry it's been so long, but here's the next chapter. I probably take some creative liberties when it comes to how things would officially or legally be handled, but I don't think it's anything too major so hopefully you all can just roll with it. Please let me know what you think...and I'll try to get the next chapter out before Christmas 2013 ;)**

* * *

"What's going on in here?" a voice bellows from the door.

Rachel feels the hand against her chest disappear and her body slumps back against the whiteboard lifelessly.

"Get away from her!"

The voice is getting louder, closer, and only when she feels the weight of Karofsky's body being pulled away from her does Rachel open her eyes. _Mr. Schue._ She tries to exhale but she chokes on a sob and falls forward. Mr. Schue rushes forward and catches her before she can hit the floor.

"Rachel? Oh my God, Rachel, are you ok?" Mr. Schue asks. He's holding her, slightly crouched forward with his arms wrapped awkwardly around her torso from the side. He tries to get a good look at her face but she refuses to meet his gaze or answer his question. Slowly, he helps her strand straight and props her up against the board before quickly turning his attention to Karofsky.

The boy is standing stock still in the center of the classroom, his mouth agape and his eyes wild as he stares at Rachel. His jeans are bunched at his knees and his hands are shaking violently as the last of his adrenaline flows through his veins.

Will storms over and grips the boy by the arm, barely allowing him to pick up his pants before marching him over to the now open door. Will thrusts the jock into the hands of the first faculty member he spots in the hall, Mr. Sierra, and instructs the Science teacher to bring the boy to the office and call the police before shutting the door.

His brain tries to process the scene he had just walked in on. _Karofsky exposed and vibrating with rage. Rachel bloodied and sobbing with her shirt torn_. It didn't look good, it looked like something awful happened, but he doesn't want to let his mind go there. These are students. Rachel is _his _student. Awful things like this didn't happen to his students. He doesn't walk in on his student being pinned to a wall in his classroom with her skirt pushed up.

"Rachel?" he asks again gently as he approaches her once again. He keeps his eyes on her bloody face, not wanting to upset her by staring at her torn shirt or her disheveled skirt.

"Mr. Schue," Rachel chokes out between sobs. "Wha-what are y-you doing here?" She looks at him bewilderedly.

"This is my classroom, Rachel," he points out softly. He didn't have a class first period but he was planning on grading some papers at his desk.

Rachel looks around like he must be crazy, but sure enough she recognizes the flags and posters on the walls. She must have been too consumed with fear to realize it earlier. She ventures her first look down at herself.

"Oh God," she gasps realizing Mr. Schue has seen her in such condition. She smoothes her skirt down and bends to hastily pull her panties back up, hissing in pain at her aching body. Will turns around to give her some privacy when he sees the look of embarrassment on her face. There's buttons missing from her top but she clutches the fabric together to cover up. She clears her throat to let her teacher know she's finished and it's safe for him to turn around.

"What happened?" Will asks reaching a hand towards her battered face. She pulls her head back out of his reach and he immediately apologizes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"I made him so angry," Rachel whispers as she shakes her head. "I shouldn't have said what I did. I shouldn't have made him so mad."

Will clenches his jaw, trying to remain as calm as possible for the sake of his student. Rachel's answer is confirmation enough that _something_ bad happened, although he's not sure of the extent. "Ok Rachel, we should get you to a doctor." He gestures to her face. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

She bites her bottom lip in contemplation. "My ribs are a little sore," she says. She's a little sore somewhere else too, but she won't be informing her teacher of that. Suddenly she freezes, her eyes going wide. "Oh God," she cries looking down at herself. "He-he...on my...he-oh God. I need to get it off. I need to get it off. It's all over me!" Her eyes search wildly for something she could use to clean herself off.

Mr. Schue regards her curiously, unsure of what to do next. "Can you move?" he asks then.

Rachel nods and pushes herself off the wall as if to prove herself capable, but a shooting pain in her side causes her to lurch forward and cry out in pain. "Ahh...it hurts. Mr. Schue, it hurts," she whimpers. "Please, I-I just need to get it off me!"

"Get what off, Rachel?" Will asks.

Her eyes seem to grow 10 times in size as she looks down at herself. Will follows her gaze to see the traces of a chalky white stain on the waistband of her skirt.

"Oh," he says slowly coming to the realization. "Oh!" he repeats more urgently when it actually hits him, his face reddening and his stomach churning. He thinks he's going to be sick, but he can't be, not in front of Rachel right now.

"Please, just get it off me," Rachel cries in a panic. She feels so exposed, standing in front of her teacher in torn and tattered clothes, but a part of her wants to rip the garments from her body right then and there to rid herself of the filth Karofsky had left her with.

"Ok, it's ok. Take it easy," Will instructs. He steps to her side and slips a hand behind her back, helping her straighten up. He can't actually help her with _that_ right now because he's pretty sure women in Rachel's situation aren't supposed to clean up before the cops get a chance to collect evidence, or at least that's what he's learned from reruns of Law and Order, but he can try to calm her down. After giving her a couple of minutes to catch her breath he makes an attempt to guide her towards the door but she refuses to budge. "It'll be ok, Rachel. You can get cleaned up at the hospital."

"No. I can't," she says meekly, quickly dropping her head to stare at her shoes.

He's in front of her once again, carefully lifting her chin so that she can finally meet his eyes. "He can't hurt you now. We're going to walk to Figgins' office and talk to the police and Dave is going to be arrested. Ok?"

"Is he out there?" she asks with a tremor. She doesn't care if there are other people around, she can't be anyway near David Karofsky right now.

"I imagine he's still in the office with Mr. Figgins. I had Mr. Sierra escort him there," Mr. Schue answers cautiously. He's honestly not sure what happened to Dave. His reaction has been purely instinctual and his instincts had told him to get Karofsky away from Rachel and help his student, so that's what he did. He's not even sure if he told Robert Sierra _why_ the police needed to be called, it had all happened so quickly.

Rachel shakes her head from side to side, tears spilling freely as she sniffles. "Then I can't! He was so angry. You didn't see him. He...he'll...I can't! Mr. Schue, I can't! I'm not leaving this room!" She's gasping for breath now, visibly shaken at the thought of another confrontation with Karofsky.

"Ok, ok, we don't have to go right now," Will tries to sooth her. He thinks for a moment before pulling his cell phone from his pocket. "I'll call the office and make sure he's gone before we leave here. Ok? But then we gotta get you to a hospital."

Rachel just nods and continues her inspection of the classroom's tile. She tries not to think about what's happening, tries not to think about how Karofsky's hand had been inside her minutes ago, or how her stomach and skirt are covered in his semen. She tries not to think about any of it because when she does, she wants to throw up.

After a few minutes she hears Mr. Schue speaking to her again. "Figgins and Sue are holding him in the office. I spoke to the police, too. I explained what happened but," he hesitates, suspecting she won't like the end of the sentence. She looks up at him, a mix of wide eyed terror and childlike expectancy on her face. "But the police will need a statement from you before they can arrest him," he adds quickly before she completely unravels. "They'll be here soon, but we should really get you checked out by a doctor first. The police can question you at the hospital. I can take you, I told them an ambulance wasn't necessary." He looks at her grimly. She can barely move and her face is badly bruised and bloodied but he didn't think she'd willingly leave with strangers at the moment or want to wheeled passed the entire student body on a stretcher in her current state.

"I'm not going out there while he's still in the building," Rachel declares, a little bit of her signature stubbornness shining through. But Will knows it's all just a pretense and that she's really just too terrified to leave the classroom.

Will sighs. The last thing he wants to do is force his traumatized student to do something against her will. "You don't have to. I'll get the nurse." It wasn't ideal, but it was something. He helps her sit in his desk chair and then starts towards the door.

"You're leaving?" she calls out desperately.

He looks at her sympathetically. "I need to the get the nurse and if you won't leave the room, then I have to..." he starts but stops abruptly when he notices her visibly tremble as she wipes a few tears from her battered face. "No, I'm not leaving."

He smiles half-heartedly before turning his back to her and pulling his cell phone from his pants pocket once again. He doesn't know the nurse's extension so he can't dial her office directly. He realizes his only option is to call the school's main office again and have them send one of the student volunteers to retrieve the nurse, but just as he's about to push the first digit he sees a familiar ponytail bob past the window of his classroom door. He rushes towards the door and rips it open.

"Santana!" he calls spotting the girl strolling along casually like she isn't at all late for first period. He knows Rachel and Santana have had their differences but he thinks it'd be better to rely on a student he trusts to get the nurse than to send some random student office volunteer who might spread gossip about the incident. He's relieved to find one of the glee kids to entrust this task to because in a situation like this, his kids are the next best thing to a faculty member. They may give each other a hard time on occasion, but he knows they'll always have each other's backs when push came to shove.

Santana glances around the hall suspiciously, making sure she hasn't been caught doing something wrong. "Mr. Schue?" she asks approaching the classroom.

He frantically waves her over.

"Look, you're not bad and all, but I'm not really hot for teacher," Santana starts as she saunters over to him lazily. "Plus, aren't you afraid someone might walk in on us?"

Will shakes his head in disbelief before hurriedly gesturing for the girl to enter the classroom.

"Alright, keep your pants on. Gees," she huffs but her expression changes when she sees they're not alone. "Berry? What the fuck?"

Choosing to ignore her language and all around inappropriate behavior, Will reveals his intention. "I need you to get the nurse." He hazards a glance towards Rachel who has now clasped her hands over her face to shield herself from Santana's eyes. "And Miss Pillsbury," he adds. He'll need all the help he can get with this one.

"Seriously, what the fu..._heck_ happened to her?" Santana looks genuinely confused by the scene before her.

"Dave Karofsky," Will answers simply, trying to keep a lid on his anger.

"Karofsky did that?" Santana asks pointing at Rachel. She's not sure why she sounds so surprised and horrified. Karofsky had always been a jerk but she never knew him to beat on girls. "I thought you two were..."

"I never!" Rachel shrieks before the other girl can finish. "David made up those salacious rumors just to humiliate me and you helped spread them around! Now everyone in this school thinks I'm a whore and when this gets out, they'll all be saying I deserved it!" She's hysterical and in obvious pain and Santana actually feels a modicum of guilt stir within her because all she wanted to do was ruin the hobbit's goody good reputation, she never imagined this would happen. She doesn't even know what happened exactly, just that it looked pretty fucking bad.

"Alright. Chill, Berry. I'm sorry." Santana's raises her hands to show she means no harm.

"Oh no," Rachel cries suddenly. "No, no, no, no, no, no." She cries harder, muttering to herself quietly as she rocks back and forth at Will's desk. "Everyone is going to hate me even more now. Oh God. And what can the police really do? He'll say I wanted it. They'll believe him, everyone else did." She's desperately gasping for air between sobs, her chest heaving violently with each attempt.

"Santana, go. Now!" Will orders, recognizing Rachel's reaction as an acute panic attack. He had experienced his share of them during he and Terri's baby drama and knew how scary they could be.

Santana bolts from the room, relieved not to be around a bleeding, shaking, crying Rachel Berry any longer.

Will moves to comfort Rachel but can barely get her to stop trembling.

* * *

"Whoa, where's the fire, San?"

Santana looks up to see who it is she just slammed into in her haste to get the fuck away from that mess.

"Berry," Santana answers, a little disoriented from the collision and the events leading up to it.

"Manhands is on fire? Nice."

Santana notes the smirk on Quinn's face when the other girl cracks the little joke and knows normally she'd share in her friend's amusement, but she can't seem to find the humor in it now.

"No!" Santana bites back a little more harshly than she intended to. "She's hurt. Karofsky beat the shit out of her and..." she trails off. She's not exactly sure what else went on in that classroom, but she had her suspicions based on Rachel's little outburst. "And she needs the nurse. I have to get the nurse." She reminds herself of her assignment and shakes herself out of her stupor.

"What? He hit her?" Quinn asks incredulously. "Sure she's annoying and all, but that's a bit much. I can't believe he hit her," she repeats in disbelief.

"Who hit who?" Both girls whip their heads around to see Puck exiting the boys' bathroom.

"Ugh, I don't have time for this! Q, get Miss Pillsbury," Santana instructs. "They're in the Spanish room." With that she's gone.

"So what happened?" Puck asks the blonde. "Mr. Schue hit someone? I bet it was Coach Sylvester!"

"No, Rachel."

"Rachel hit who?" Puck asks, clearly confused.

"No, you idiot! Karofsky hit Rachel," Quinn informs him.

"What? Why would he...what the fuck," he stammers clenching his fists tightly and looking around the hallway wildly as if he might find the offender right then and there. "Fuck that, where is that motherfucker? I'm gonna beat him so badly his mother won't recognize him when I'm through!"

Quinn's never seen Puck come undone so quickly, he's practically shaking in anger. Maybe he was being honest when he admitted he kind of liked Rachel in the greenroom before their Sectionals performance.

"No, you won't. Probation, remember? Now come on, let's go get Miss Pillsbury," Quinn says cooly.

* * *

Santana runs to the nurse's office and although it takes some persuading to actually get the insufferable woman to follow her, her desperation and colorful language eventually lead the nurse to take her request seriously. The pair arrive back at the classroom before Quinn and Miss Pillsbury do and Mr. Schue practically jumps for joy at the arrival of medical help.

"She's having a panic attack," Will declares. "I can't get her to calm down and breathe. And I think her nose is broken and maybe her ribs too." He sounds dejected, like he's disappointed he can't do more for his student.

The nurse approaches cautiously. "Oh, honey, what happened?" she asks Rachel sweetly.

Santana just rolls her eyes at the woman's sudden change of attitude, just minutes earlier she was insisting that she couldn't leave her office under any circumstance.

Rachel is now a muttering ball of tears on the floor. After Santana left to fetch the nurse, Rachel had attempted to pace her anxiety away but ended up collapsing to the floor and sobbing.

The nurse kneels in front of her, placing the first aid kit she brought on the floor, and begins to treat the injured girl.

The door opens and Miss Pillsbury appears, flanked by Quinn and Puck. Rachel's head snaps up to take notice of who entered and she can't suppress a look of confusion. "A-are we just r-r-rounding up p-people to tor-torment me now?" she asks between gasps for air.

Mr. Schue notices her eyes shift from Santana to Quinn before settling on Puck. Given their pasts, it probably isn't ideal that these three particular students are involved, but he's hoping the severity of the situation will warrant the temporary suspension of any bad blood among the teens. He'll have to talk to them about it afterwards.

"Rachel, you need to breathe," the nurse instructs.

Will rises to his feet, finally feeling free to leave Rachel's side now that the nurse is assisting her. "What are you two doing here?" he asks once he reaches the group, who are all just staring wide-eyed at the scene before them.

"I ran into Santana in the hallway," Quinn answers.

"Literally," Santana adds wryly.

"And she asked me to get Miss Pillsbury while she got the nurse. Puck overheard and came along," Quinn explains.

"Will? What's going on?" Miss Pillsbury speaks up, her eyes seemingly larger than usual. Will looks at his students briefly before muttering something about them getting back to class, an order they all promptly ignore. He guides Miss Pillsbury by her elbow away from the kids and begins to explain what he had walked in on.

As the girls whisper back and forth Puck strains to hear what his teacher is saying to the guidance counselor. He has to maintain a reasonable distance in order not to be caught, but from his position he can hear the adults' conversation pretty well.

"...and when I walked in he had her against the wall. Her skirt was up and his pants were down. He was..."

The conversation comes to an abrupt halt when the sound of Puck's open hand slamming into the wall tears through the classroom accompanied by a loud growl.

"Puck," Will starts, immediately realizing the boy had overheard his conversation with Emma. "You need to calm down." He deliberately looks over at Rachel, imploring Puck to follow his gaze.

Puck takes in the petite girl, her expression more ghastly now than when he first walked in. "Shit," he mutters. "I'm sorry," he says in Rachel's direction. "I'm sorry," he repeats to the rest of the group. Leaning in he quietly asks his teacher, "Did he really rape her?" He lowered his voice but not enough.

"What?" Quinn shrieks. "I thought he just smacked her around a little."

Will tenses. "Guys, please settle down." He motions for the kids to step closer to where he's standing so that Rachel won't overhear them. "He was trying to when I walked in. It doesn't appear he succeeded, but we can't be sure till we hear it from Rachel herself."

The kids look visibly upset at the news and despite Santana having expected something like this, hearing her suspicions confirmed has a strong effect. "I'll cut his balls off and shove them done his throat," she seethes. She doesn't know why she's so angry, she doesn't even _like_ Rachel, but no one deserved to be forced and violated like that.

Will looks to Emma for help. Timidly, she steps forward. "Ok, everyone, I know you're all upset, but we have to pull ourselves together and be strong for Rachel right now," Miss Pillsbury suggests.

"Yes," Will agrees. "And please, a little discretion when you leave this room. Rachel is very worried about this getting around school. You need to put whatever differences you have with her out of the way when it comes to this."

"We will." Quinn is the only one to venture a verbal response. She's said some pretty nasty things about Rachel in the past, but she wouldn't go around spreading something this like it was some piece of juicy gossip.

Will notes the time on the clock above his desk. "I think the cops should be here by now," he says. "Why don't you guys go check and inform them that they'll be taking Rachel's statement in here. She refuses to leave this room till Karofsky is out of the building."

"I'm not leaving her," Puck says matter-of-factly. He hasn't taken his eyes off of Rachel since he entered the room and he doesn't plan to any time soon.

"We'll go," Quinn volunteers. She grabs onto Santana's arm and the duo leave the room.

Puck begins to pace in front of Will and Emma. "That fucking coward!" he whispers harshly. "First, he picks on the smallest kid in this damn school and now he's attacking girls. And of course it has to be Rachel!" He wonders if this is what had Rachel acting so strangely lately, if it has been going on for a while now. The rumors... is this where they originated from? Karofsky forcing himself on her and then telling everyone she was a slut? Rachel would have told him if things were that bad, right? Is that what she was trying to tell him when she freaked out on him in the choir room the other day? He's so angry he thinks he might actually be physically capable of tearing Karofsky apart limb by limb if he got his hands on him.

"Noah, why don't you have a seat?" Emma suggests. She looks up to note Rachel holding a gauze pad to her face. "We don't want to upset Rachel any further."

Puck nods as if he agrees but he doesn't sit. "I really want to hit him, Mr. Schue. I'm actually picturing beating him to death," he confesses.

Will offers his student a sympathetic look. "Let the police handle it. You getting in trouble won't help matters."

Puck steals another look at Rachel. The nurse is now cleaning the blood from her face with gauze pads, causing Rachel to bring both her hands up to grasp the woman's wrist in an attempt to stop her from touching the tender bone of her likely broken nose. As her hands fly upward, her shirt falls open and Puck can clearly see her white lace bra. Normally such an sight would turn him on, but instead he's turning away in disgust and shaking out of his letterman jacket like it's on fire. Without a word he's stalking over to her and kneeling down, offering her the jacket. She looks up at him in confusion, allowing her hands to fall into her lap.

"Take it," he says. "Your shirt is torn." He does his best not to look down at the tattered piece of clothing but can't help himself.

The realization that she had basically been flashing the entire room for the last 5 minutes dawns on Rachel and her eyes widen. She pulls her shirt closed hastily, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

Puck wonders if he made a mistake in drawing her attention to this. "Here." He offers the jacket once again and she reaches for it tentatively as if he might have wrapped an explosive in it before making the offer. He rolls his eyes at her hesitation and tries to smile. "It's just a jacket, Berry. I promise I didn't soak it in small pox or anything."

He helps her slip the jacket on, noting how she grimaces in pain whenever she turns or moves too much. He buttons it all the way up to the collar so she's fully covered. It's way too big and she looks even smaller than usual with it on, but her breathing starts to even out and the nurse looks at Puck appreciatively.

Puck stands. "I'm sorry." He's not sure what he's apologizing for. Maybe he should have said he was sorry this happened or something along those lines. He's unsure of the proper etiquette in consoling a girl in this situation.

"Thank you, Noah." She sounds so small and he hates it.

"No problem." He gives her a small smile before turning his back to her.

"Wait!" Rachel calls out suddenly. Puck whips around in a flash. "Can you...if it's not too much trouble...will you...sit with me?" she asks.

He grins, honored that she wants him at her side. "It's no trouble at all, babe." He settles on the floor besides her and watches the nurse continue to tend to Rachel's face while Rachel avoids making eye contact with him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: So this is more of a continuation of the last chapter than a new chapter. Again, sorry for the delay. I was hoping to have more of the story written before I posted this because I feel like things aren't progressing quickly enough and having the next part mapped out would make me feel better about that, but I figured it's about time I put this out there. Excuse any inaccuracies in terms of police procedure because I'm totally making everything up. Thanks again for reading, reviewing and following this story. Please let me know that you think. **

* * *

"I should talk to her," Emma blurts out abruptly as she stops her nervous pacing in front of Will.

Will continues to stare at the door expectantly, waiting for the police to arrive. He can't help but feel like he's handling this all wrong, like he's letting his sympathy and affection for his student get in the way of doing what's best for her. But if the cops would just show up already and take over he could maybe stop feeling like every decision he makes regarding the situation is going to permanently scar Rachel. He runs a hand through his curls and tugs a bit as he exhales before giving Emma an encouraging nod. Better she talk to Rachel than he make another attempt.

Emma returns the nod eagerly and turns towards Rachel with a sense of resolve, but as she approaches the girl she begins to panic. She'd never dealt with something like this before. Over the years she had counseled a few students who had been sexually assaulted or abused in the past, but she had never seen a victim so soon after the attack. She had never actually seen a girl bloody and bruised sitting right in front of her the way Rachel Berry currently is. Usually she just had to listen to them talk about it and that was hard enough, but now she's face to face with the aftermath and she's so unnerved by it she feels the sudden urge to rearrange all the items on Will's desk according to size and color to calm herself down, but there's no time for that.

"Rachel," Emma begins softly, kneeling in front of Puck and Rachel. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Rachel shakes her head a few times and Emma thinks she might be too shocked to talk about it, but then Rachel starts speaking in fractured bits and pieces and Emma does her best to appear comforting as the girl tells her story.

"David...he's been harassing me for weeks," Rachel starts hesitantly. "He started rumors that we... that I...performed certain _acts_ on him in the bathroom. But I most certainly did _not,_" Rachel emphasizes frantically, glancing around to make sure everyone understands. "Then he started pushing me around. _Kissing _me. _Touching_ me." She stops to collect herself because her breathing is uneven and her hands are trembling and she's not sure she can tell the guidance counselor all of this. She takes a few deep breaths and swipes at the tears in her eyes, forcing herself to go on. "He threatened me, said he'd hurt Kurt if I told anyone. I didn't know what to do. I... I wasn't sure what he wanted or why he was doing it, but I couldn't let him hurt Kurt again." She glances up at Puck and Miss Pillsbury expectantly, desperate for some type of approval or confirmation that her reasoning had been rational, that they don't think she's to blame for ending up like this. She just needs them to understand why she hadn't told, and while they don't seem to be too appalled with her lack of action, they don't exactly look like they get it either. They just look like they pity her and Rachel thinks she'd rather they be disgusted with her instead. She swallows hard and continues in spite of their sympathy. "He didn't do those things when no one was around though. Only in public. In the halls or the cafeteria. But no one ever said anything because they believed the lies he was telling about me... that I'm a s-slut and that I... but I never even... before...no one had ever... I hadn't done _anything_ with _anyone,_" she stresses, confused and hurt, "but _everyone_ believed him." Rachel looks up at Puck once again to find the boy starring at her with a mixture of rage and regret on his face. "I didn't know how to stop him and he just got worse," she begins again. "Rougher. More brazen. It was _hell_. Kurt and Blaine found out and tried make me tell Figgins, but I knew no one would believe me, no one ever believes me. I was afraid he would get away with it like he got away with harassing Kurt and things would just get worse if I told and he went unpunished. I didn't want to take that risk but he was ruining my life. I couldn't think about anything else, I couldn't focus on school, or Glee, or my friends and I just wanted it to stop. I had to make it stop." She pauses and takes a deep shaky breath. "So I approached him in the hall and told him to _stop_. I just wanted him to stop," she cries. "But he got _so_ mad. He dragged me into here and starting screaming at me... about my dads and Kurt and...and I suggested that his hatred for them might stem from his own deep rooted homosexuality and he attacked me. I don't know why I said that but I did and he _lost_ it. He started tearing at my clothes, shouting that he was going to show me how much of a man he was. I don't even know why I said that! He got so angry. I've never seen him like that before. I-I provoked him...I don't know why I said that. God, I'm such an idiot!" she sobs brokenly.

"No, Rachel, do not say that. You are not an idiot and you did not provoke him. You did nothing to cause this," Emma assures her. "What David did is deplorable and it was not your fault. Okay?"

Puck does his best to remain collected as he listens to Rachel recount her recent history with Karofsky. He knows his presence is helping to keep Rachel calm and he doesn't want to derail the situation by sending her into another panic attack.

"He's right, I don't know when to keep my mouth shut," Rachel adds gravely.

"You said Kurt and Blaine found out?" Emma asks and Rachel nods in response. "Did you tell anyone that this was going on?" Emma adds.

Rachel shakes her head guiltily. "I tried, but no one wanted to hear it so I gave up. And David said he'd go after Kurt if I made a big deal out of it." She intentionally avoids naming Mr. Schue as the person she tried to tell because she can see him staring at her from a few feet away and doesn't want him to think she blames him for not listening.

Emma pats the girl's knee softly. "Okay, Rachel, well the cops should be here any minute. Is there any-"

As if on cue the door opens and an officer appears with Quinn and Santana at his heels.

"That goon's trying to say he didn't hit her," Santana announces contemptuously as she bursts into the room behind a uniformed police officer.

"I'm Officer O'Riley. Where's the complainant?"

Quinn rolls her eyes. "She'd be the one cowering in the corner with the torn clothes and bloody face."

The officers gives her an annoyed look before stepping forward. "Alright, we don't need an audience. Everybody out."

"No!" Rachel cries suddenly causing everyone to look at her. "I mean, can't someone stay with me?" She looks at Puck expectantly.

"I ain't going anywhere, buddy," Puck informs the officer.

Officer O'Riley sighs and turns his attention to the rest of the group. "What about the rest of you? Is this going to be a group project?"

The nurse stands up and brushes her hands on her pants. "She's all cleaned up but her nose is definitely broken. She'll need x-rays for her ribs. I'll call her parents and have them meet us at the hospital." She excuses herself from the room to make the call.

Rachel freezes at the mention of her parents and it suddenly occurs to her that her dads are going to know everything. They're going to hear all the details. The thought makes her sick but there's too much going on around her to focus on it right now.

"Emma should stay with her, too," Will suggests, getting back to the officer's question. "She's the guidance counselor."

"And Will's the one who found her," Emma offers in his defense.

The officer rolls his eyes as if to say "whoop-te-doo" before looking at the girls. "And these two? What's their purpose? Are they going to cheer the girl on while she gives her statement?"

Santana jumps forward ready to go all Lima Heights on the guy but Quinn's hand on her shoulder stops her from getting arrested for assaulting an officer.

"We're leaving," Quinn says.

Santana mumbles some form of protest at Quinn's words but eventually lets herself be led from the room by her fellow Cheerio. It was probably best she didn't hear the details and she couldn't blame Rachel for not requesting they stay.

They leave the room but proceed to stand guard in the hallway, deciding they'll keep anyone from trying to enter the classroom. It might be an unnecessary task to take up, but they feel the need to contribute in some way. Besides, there's no way they're going back to class while this is going down.

Will and Emma cross over to the back of the classroom, wanting to give Rachel some space while she gives her statement while still being close enough for emotional support if she needs it. Puck carefully places his hand on Rachel's back and guides her up and to a seat in the front row. Once she's seated, he pulls the adjacent desk closer to the one she was sitting in and slides in.

The officer begins with a series of questions that Puck can't see being relevant to the investigation, but Rachel patiently answers every one. Next, the officer asks what events had led up to the "alleged" attack and Puck listens as Rachel repeats what she had told Miss Pillsbury about the harassment before this morning, but with much more attention to detail and time. She mentions another boy cornering her in the bathroom because of the rumors and Puck makes a mental note to track Scott Daley down at a later time and beat the shit out of him. When she finally starts to describe how Karofsky had punched her in the face repeatedly and torn her panties down he feels the control slipping from his body.

"Then he, uh...he," Rachel is saying, her eyes flicking towards Puck nervously before focusing intently on her hands once again and continuing, "he put his, uh...then he put his fingers inside me." She lowers her voice significantly when she reveals that fact but Puck hears it loud and clear and he's pretty sure his heart is seconds from beating out of his chest. She looks over at him, trying to gauge his reaction, before shutting her eyes tight, unwilling to actually see it.

"It's ok, Rach. I'm right here. Go on," Puck whispers. His hands reach for hers and cover them assuringly.

He tries to remain calm and comforting as Rachel tells her story, but he's pretty sure she catches the look of absolute horror on his face when she timidly recounts how Karofsky had then masturbated onto her stomach before attempting to rape her. Puck had never been good at controlling his emotions, he sort of had the tendency to fly off at the handle whenever someone so much as stepped on his shoe, so he thinks he should get some sort of frigging award for not storming into Figgin's office and smashing Karofsky's head through the glass door right then.

Rachel finishes giving her statement and Puck is momentarily relieved to hear that Mr. Schue had been right about Karofsky not succeeding in actually raping her, but that relief is short-lived when he realizes just how close Karofsky had gotten. Had Puck trusted his instincts about Rachel in the first place and not wasted time on the lies and rumors being spread about her, Karofsky would not have gotten so close. Puck would have put a stop to all of it before that punk ever got the chance to attack Rachel.

The officer flips his notepad shut and steps back from the two teenagers. He pulls a radio from his belt and informs his partner, who is currently babysitting Karofsky in Figgins' office, to go ahead and arrest him.

"Fucking finally," Puck mutters and Rachel gives him a quick scolding glance for his language that makes him smile slightly.

Quinn and Santana watch as the other officer who had arrived earlier escorts a handcuffed Dave Karofsky out of the principle's office. Figgins stands behind them with an unusually somber Coach Sylvester at his side. Santana's lips curl into a satisfied smirk. She has no idea what was said to Karofsky as he awaited his fate, but knowing Coach Sylvester was involved assures her it wasn't comforting.

The officer pauses to say something into his radio before being met by what years of getting in trouble tell Santana is a detective. The two exchange some words before the woman turns and starts towards Mr. Schue's room. Feeling restless Santana starts forward and meets the detective halfway. "They're in there," she says pointing to the classroom. "Is he going to jail?" she asks hopefully.

The detective nods. "He'll be booked and arraigned. I can't promise he'll stay behind bars though."

"Why the fuck not?" Santana demands. "He bashed her face in and tried to rape her!"

The detective quirks an eyebrow, amused by the girl's boldness. "We'll do our best to get justice for your friend," she assures the eager girl.

"She's not my..." Santana trails off. She's not sure why she feels the need to inform the stranger that Rachel Berry is no friend of hers. She's less sure of why she stopped herself from saying so. "Thanks."

The detective enters the classroom and talks to Officer O'Riley for a few minutes before he leaves to join his partner in hauling Karofsky's sorry ass to the police station.

"I'm Detective Palmerri," the woman informs the room. She politely shakes the hands of WIll and Emma, who offer their own names and titles in exchange, before turning her attention to Rachel. Puck eyes her suspiciously at first, not pleased with the fact that Rachel has to repeat her story yet again. How many fucking cops did Rachel have to talk to? But he relaxes a bit when he hears the gentle tone Detective Palmerri speaks in. He likes this lady much more than Officer O'Douche. After Rachel confirms what Officer O'Riley told her about the incident, Detective Palmerri informs the room that she'll need to take Rachel to the hospital to document her injuries for evidence. Rachel visibly tenses at the prospect of leaving the room.

"We'll come with you, Rachel," Will offers.

"Noah too?" she asks hopefully.

Emma sighs. "I'm afraid we can't remove a student from the school unless it's an emergency without parental consent. Noah will have to go back to class."

"Fuck that! This is an emergency. I'm going with her!" Puck exclaims.

"I'm sorry, son. We can't be dragging minors out of school," Detective Palmerri adds. "I'll take good care of her for you."

"Then I'll cut and meet you there," Puck says to Rachel as if it was the most obvious and logical solution.

Rachel's head snaps up. "You will do no such thing!" she informs him. "I will not be a contributing factor to your delinquency."

Puck throws his head back in frustration. "Fine. I'm sorry, Rach. I wish I could be there with you."

"It's ok, Noah," she says quietly. She stands and gives him a loose hug. "You've been very kind. Thank you." She turns her attention towards the adults in the room. "Can we please get this over with? I have a history test in sixth period."

"You're going to come back to school?" Puck asks in disbelief.

"Of course," she replies as if the idea of her missing class was insane. "You don't expect me to miss an exam just because Dav-..." Her voice falters on his name and Puck is quickly gathering her in another hug.

"Berry, you're not coming back to this hell hole. Not today at least. Let them take you home after the hospital and I'll be by after school. I'll even get your work from all your classes and bring it to you because I know you'll have a heart attack if you fall behind."

She has to swallow a sob. "Really?"

"Really," he repeats with a grin.

Rachel leaves with the Detective, Mr. Schue and Emma. When the foursome appear in the hallway Santana looks up expectantly but doesn't speak. Rachel stops to look at the two cheerleaders. "Um...thanks," she says curtly in their direction. Unsatisfied with her declaration of gratitude she adds nervously, "for, you know, helping me."

Quinn just smiles in response but Santana feels the need to say more. "Berry. Rachel," she corrects. "I'm sorry." Rachel nods appreciatively and continues her walk out of the building.

The two girls exchange glances before entering the classroom and closing the door behind them. Puck's sitting on the edge of Mr. Schue's desk, twirling a small Spanish flag in his hand.

"So what's the deal, Puckerman?" Santana demands.

"They're taking her to the hospital." He straightens up and tosses the flag over his shoulder so that in lands somewhere on Mr. Schue's desk. "They wouldn't let me go with her."

"Did he rape her?" Quinn asks from behind Santana.

When Puck shakes his head no both girls exhale in relief before exchanging guilty glances as if being caught caring about Rachel Berry was a mortal sin.

"But he..." Puck stops mid-sentence realizing he doesn't know the right term for what Karofsky did do to Rachel. Molest? Violate? Fondle? He was sure there had to be some technical or legal term for it, but the fuck if he knew it. "But he did stuff... and he touched her." He settles on the word touch, comfortable with it's vagueness.

"Touch her how? Like hit her? We know that, her face was a mess," Santana says, clearly annoyed with his explanation.

"No, he _touched_ her," Puck tries again, emphasizing the word so that the girls would understand. It takes a second but Santana finally realizes what the boy has been trying to say and he can't help but be a little afraid when she starts muttering to herself in Spanish.

"So he did in fact sexually assault her?" Quinn attempts to clarify the situation.

Puck nods. _Sexually assault._ That's probably what he should have said in the first place. "Fuck! I'm such an idiot!" He's pacing the classroom suddenly, glaring at the two of them.

"What the hell?" Santana startles at his abrupt change.

He points an accusing finger at the girl. "If either one of you use this to torture Rachel when she comes back to school...so help you, God!" He looks at Quinn to make sure she gets the message as well. "I'm such an idiot," he repeats. "Rachel trusts me to stay with her while she recounts the worst thing that's ever happened to her and the first thing I do is tell the two people at this school who hate her the most. Fuck!" He looks wildly from one girl to the other. "You can't use this against her," he pleads. "I know you feel like it's your calling in life to make Rachel's life a living hell, but this is off limits. You got that? All you know for sure is that Karofsky hit her, nothing about the sexual assault or whatever the fuck you call it."

"Relax, dude," Santana says.

"Do you really think we would tease a girl about being sexually assaulted?" Quinn asks. Puck just glares at her as if to say,_ fuck yeah. _Quinn takes a breath before speaking again. "Fine, maybe we haven't always been nice to Rachel, but even we wouldn't stoop that low."

Puck rolls his eyes. "Haven't been nice?" he echoes her words as if they're the craziest thing he's ever heard. "That's the fucking understatement of the year right there. Aren't you the one who had a _25 Ways to Torture Manhands_ list lamented and posted in your locker last year?" he asks accusingly.

Quinn ducks her head guiltily. "Fine, so I've been a total bitch to the girl from day 1. That doesn't mean I'm glad this happened to her."

"And you," Puck points an accusing finger towards Santana. "You're the one who said all that bullshit about Rachel going down on those assholes was true. You had to know that was complete BS!" He's suddenly not sure why he ever believed the rumor to begin with. After all, Rachel was the girl who wouldn't even let him get any over the shirt side boob action when they made out. He should have known it would have been more than unlikely that she'd be giving random jocks head in the bathroom.

Santana backs up defensively. "I didn't know for sure," she admits. The truth was she wanted to believe Rachel wasn't perfect so she allowed herself to believe Karofsky that day in the cafeteria despite knowing better. She tosses her head back and sighs. "Give it a rest Puckerman, I know I'm a royal bitch and Berry has always been a pain in my ass, but I never wanted this to happen." She closes her eyes for a moment and Puck thinks he detects guilt in her voice. "You have my word. I'll lay off her, and I'll make sure everyone else does too. For now at least."

"You better," Puck returns.

Quinn steps forward to put an arm around Santana. It was obvious the morning had been tough on the other girl. "Come on, we should get to class," she says. Puck and Santana just shrug dejectedly. Nothing else they could do now, might as well go learn something.


End file.
